• Title
  [First Government House, Sydney] / watercolour drawing by John Eyre
• Creator
  J. (John) Eyre, 1771-
• Call number
  SV/31
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  ca. 1807
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Watercolours
• Reference code
  69845
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  Drawings - 1 watercolour - 25.5 x 34.4 cm.
  
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Artist died before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  ca. 1807 (dated from design of garden, which was said to have been re-modelled by Governor William Bligh and his daughter Mary Putland in ca.1807
  Reference: H. Proudfoot et al., Australia's First Government House, 1990 p.90 (Ref.1/994.4102/11 Mitchell Library).
  
  In this drawing the garden appears to be more developed than in Eyre's earlier drawing "View from the West side of the Cove" which is dated 1806 (DG XV1/26 Dixson Galleries). However there is little sign of the garden in John William Lewin's depiction of the house in his "Sydney Cove" which is dated 4 September 1808 (ML 60 Mitchell Library).
  
  It is possible that during 1808, when Governor Bligh was confined to Government House by the rebel administration, and refused servants, that the garden he and his daughter planted, died.)
  
  Vendor acquired drawing as part of a mixed folio of prints and drawings at an English West county auction sale ca.1993. The vendor has been unable to trace the provenance further back than this sale.
  
  A very close (faint) pencil drawing, probably by John William Lewin, is on the reverse of a watercolour of a hibiscus - one of a collection of botanical studies commissioned by Governor King ca.1804-05
  Reference:
  SAFE/PXC 304 f.104 Mitchell Library Pictures Section.
  
  Colour transparency digitised 1998
  Digital order no:a128359
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  Signed at lower left "I. Eyre Del[corner torn]"
• Topic
  colonial art
  gardens
  official buildings
  official residences
  
• Place
  Government House (Bridge St., Sydney, N.S.W.)
  Sydney Cove (N.S.W.)
  
• Exhibited in
  
  A Rage for Curiosity - State Library of New South Wales (1 September, 1997 - 11 January, 1998)
  Eora: Mapping Aboriginal Sydney, 1770-1850 - State Library of New South Wales (June, 2006 - August, 2006)
  Politics & Power: Bligh's Sydney Rebellion 1808 - State Library of New South Wales (January, 2008 - April, 2008)

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