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Conrad Martens as a Recorder of the Landscape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

J.G. Steele
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Extract

Conrad Martens' watercolours and pencil sketches constitute an unrivalled record of the landscape of south-east Queensland in the early 1850s. I can think of no other artist who so skilfully packaged and conveyed so much information, not only about what he saw on his travels but also about how he experienced it. In this article I will discuss Martens as a recorder of the landscape under three headings — artistic, scientific and historical, and to illustrate these attributes by referring to examples of his works. Many of his works display all of these attributes, but in discussing a given work I shall resist the temptation to stray from the threefold classification of artistic, scientific and historical.

Type
Special Themed Section: Conrad Martens
Information
Queensland Review , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , May 2002 , pp. 13 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 

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References

Notes

1 Darwin, Charles, letter to his sister Caroline, dated Montevideo, 13 Nov. 1833, cited in Darwin, Charles, The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), vol. 1, 354.Google Scholar

2 Martens, Conrad, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, 1852, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, J.G., Conrad Martens in Queensland: The Frontier Travels of a Colonial Artist (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1978), Plate 4 and Elizabeth Ellis, Conrad Martens: Life and Art (Sydney: State Library of New South Wales Press, 1994), 172. Watercolour sold to Henry Challis in 1853.Google Scholar

3 Martens, Conrad, Kangaroo Point from Mr Thornton's, Nov. 22, 1851, 1851, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, reproduced in Steele, Figure 15.Google Scholar

4 Martens, Conrad, Moreton Bay Pine, n.d., Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 36.Google Scholar

5 Martens, Conrad, View of Brisbane and Kangaroo Point, 1862, National Library of Australia, Canberra, reproduced in Steele, Plate 3 and Susanna De Vries-Evans, Conrad Martens: On the Beagle and in Australia (Chapel Hill: Pandanus Press, 1993), Plate 11. Sold to Lord Henry Scott in 1862.Google Scholar

6 Martens, Conrad, View of North Brisbane, 1856, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Jane de Falbe, My Dear Miss Macarthur: The Recollections of Emmeline Maria Macarthur (1828–1911) (Kenthurst: Kangaroo Press, 1988), 61. Sold to George Leslie in 1856.Google Scholar

7 Martens, Conrad, Mount Huntley from Moogera, n.d., private collection; reproduced in De Vries-Evans, Plate 12. This work is sometimes known as Storm over the Darling Downs.Google Scholar

8 Martens, Conrad, Forest, Cunningham's Gap, 1856, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; reproduced in de Falbe, facing page 49, and Julie Ewington, Conrad Martens and the Darling Downs (South Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery, 1998). Sold to George Leslie in 1856.Google Scholar

9 Martens, Conrad, Franklyn Vale, 1861, private collection; reproduced in Steele, Plate 10. Sold to Henry Mort in 1861.Google Scholar

10 Martens, Conrad, The Mirage on the Great Condamine Plain, n.d., Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 89 and Ellis, 57.Google Scholar

11 For example, Martens, Conrad, The Glasshouses, Moreton Bay, Early Morning, Nov. 6th 51, 1851, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 2.Google Scholar

12 Martens, Conrad, Near Pilton, ‘Xanthorea’ or Grass trees, Dec. 24th 1851, 1851, Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 48.Google Scholar

13 Martens, Conrad, Mount Greville from the Ascent to Cunningham's Gap, Dec. 11 1851, 1851, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 33.Google Scholar

14 Martens, Conrad, Terrawambella on Nicol's Run, New England, March 19th 1852, 1852, Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 110 and Ellis, 61.Google Scholar

15 Martens, Conrad, The Bunya Pine, Cooyar, Feb. 13th 1852, 1852, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 80.Google Scholar

16 Martens, Conrad, Bottle Tree, 1851, 1851, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; reproduced in Steele, Figure 37.Google Scholar

17 Martens, Conrad, Bottle Tree, Rosalie Plains — Ramsay Esq. Feb. 16th, 1852, 1852, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney: reproduced in Steele, Figure 81.Google Scholar

18 Martens, Conrad, Coochin Run, 1854, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; reproduced in de Falbe, facing page 64.Google Scholar

19 Martens, Conrad, “Mooni'’, Coochin, Dec. 5th 1851, 1851, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 32.Google Scholar

20 Martens, Conrad, On the Run ‘Cuchin', 1875, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Plate 6 and Ellis, 186. Sold to Alexander Oliver in 1875.Google Scholar

21 Martens, Conrad, Coochin, Dec. 2, 1851, 1851, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; reproduced in Steele, Figure 27 and Ewington.Google Scholar

22 Martens, Conrad, Ipswich Landing Place, Nov. 24 1851, 1851, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 17.Google Scholar

23 Martens, Conrad, Cunningham's Gap, 1874, private collection; reproduced in Steele, Figure 39.Google Scholar

24 Martens, Conrad, Rosella Point, Darling Downs, Dec. 31 1851, 1851, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 59.Google Scholar

25 Martens, Conrad, Charley March 16th [1852], 1852, Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Queensland Art Gallery, 1995; reproduced at http://www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/martens.Google Scholar

26 Martens, Conrad, Forest, Cunningham's Gap, 1856, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; reproduced in de Falbe, facing page 49 and Ewington.Google Scholar

27 Martens, Conrad, Descent of the Range from Drayton, 7 Jan. 1852, 1852, Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 66.Google Scholar

28 Martens, Conrad, Drayton, Jan. 6, 1852, 1852, Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 64 and Maurice French, Pubs, Ploughs and ‘Peculiar People': Town, Farms and Social Life (Toowoomba: University of Southern Queensland Press, 1992), 58.Google Scholar

29 Martens, Conrad, The Heifer Station, Canning Downs, 11 March 1852, 1852, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 100 and French, 138.Google Scholar

30 Martens, Conrad, The Washpool, Goomburra, Dec. 26th 1851, 1851, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 51; a similar watercolour is in Ellis, 175.Google Scholar

31 Martens, Conrad, Blacks’ Camp at Gladfield, Dec. 29th 1851, 1851, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Figure 54 and French, Maurice, Conflict on the Condamine, Aborigines and the European Invasion (Toowoomba: Darling Downs Institute Press, 1989), 22.Google Scholar

32 For example, Coochin 27 Nov. 1851, 1851, a gift for Mrs James Mitchell, now in Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; reproduced in Steele, Plate 5.Google Scholar