• Title
  Item 03: Coal River N.S. Wales, 1807 / watercolour by I.W. Lewin
• Call number
  SAFE/PXD 942/3
  
• Level of description
  series
• Date
  
  1807
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Drawings
• Reference code
  430518
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 drawing - watercolour - 33.5 x 44.1 cm
  
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Artist died before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  From Curator's acquisition notes, June 2003:
  This drawing shows the entrance to the Hunter River, most probably the southern end of the Stockton (or Burrabihngarn) Spit looking across from the infant Newcastle settlement. Significantly it shows the original landscape of the Hunter River, now completely unrecognisable.
  
  The drawing was completed in December 1807, probably a studio drawing of an earlier sketch and was part of a large Bligh commission apparently placed in late 1807. Lewin was commissioned by Bligh to make at least two drawings of the Newcastle district: Newcastle Region Library also owns a drawing by Lewin "Entrance to Coal River", which is dated 11 December 1807.
  
  Lewin had visited Newcastle in 1801, with Lieut. James Grant and William Paterson on the Lady Nelson. He is not, however, recorded as having visited Newcastle in 1807, and while the date on this drawing implies he was there on 3rd December 1807, other watercolours also commissioned by Bligh are also dated 3 December 1807 and 11 December 1807 (see "Variegated Lizard of New South Wales", Art Gallery of NSW and "Entrance to Coal River", Newcastle Region Library) . This would imply that Lewin completed a series of watercolours in his studio for Bligh in December 1807, and that he most likely visited Newcastle at an earlier date.
  Digital order no:Album ID : 879113
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  In pencil on reverse "Coal River N.S.Wales - upper part of the Hunter WB"
  Also titled in a recent hand on reverse
  Inscribed at lower right "IWLewin / Dec.r 3rd / 1807"
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Lewin, J. W. (John William), 1770-1819
  
• Topic
  landscape paintings
  
• Place
  Hunter River (N.S.W.)
  Stockton (N.S.W.)
  
• Exhibited in
  
  The City Unfolds - Newcastle Region Art Gallery
  Lewin: Wild Art - State Library of New South Wales (March, 2012 - October, 2012)
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE1087082

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