Masterpiece Fine Art Gallery – Specialists in Fine Australian Art. Established 1975

18001
Attributed Robert Hawker Dowling (1827 – 1886)
Portrait of Olof Hilmer Hedberg (1817 – 1884) c. 1850s
Oil on canvas
104 x 78.5 cm
Unsigned

Olof Hilmer Hedberg (1817 – 1884) arrived in Hobart in 1844, establishing himself as a whaling identity during the peak of the industry and founding a dynasty that remains to this day. Generations of Hedbergs have left their mark on the state of Tasmania in fields as broad as brewing, fisheries and spatial science. The family legacy in now being honoured with the naming of the performing arts centre ‘The Hedberg’, currently being built on the site of Hedberg Bros. Garage, Collins Street, Hobart.

This large portrait was sourced from the collection of a descendant of colonial frame maker and fine art dealer Robin Vaughan Hood (1802 – 1888), who was a known associate of the Hedberg family. It is believed that the painting was painted by colonial portraitist Robert Hawker Dowling (1827 – 1886), who opened his Hobart studios in 1852, where he worked until his departure for England in 1857.

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17010
Janet Agnes Cumbrae-Stewart (1883 – 1960)
(The Farmyard, Hobart, Tasmania) 1916
Oil on canvas
24 x 39 cm (sight)
Signed & dated lower right

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18024
Jeffrey Smart (1921 – 2013)
Figures on a Beach, 1955
Oil on canvas
33 x 42 cm
Signed lower left

Exhibited: Macquarie Galleries, Sydney August – September 1955 Cat No 13 – 16gns

Reference: Jeffrey Smart – P Quartermain 1983 – page 105, no 288

This remarkable work by Jeffrey Smart, one of Australia’s most celebrated twentieth century artists, was originally exhibited at the Macquarie Galleries in a show his friend and fellow artist Justin O’Brien initiated in 1955. During Jeffrey Smart’s Sydney period, from 1951 – 1962, a number of his most famous and successful works were created, including ‘On the Roof, Taylor Square’ (1962, National Gallery of Australia collection) and ‘The Cahill Expressway’ (1962, National Gallery of Victoria collection). In addition to its beautifully considered and rendered composition, ‘Figures on the beach’ (1955) demonstrates Smart’s remarkable ability to create a subtle, exquisite and intriguing mood.

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17092
Percy Charles Lindsay (1870 – 1952)
Miners Cottage, Creswick
Oil on canvas
49.7 x 30.3 cm
Signed lower right

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18011
William Charles Piguenit (1836 – 1914)
“Craycroft River, Tasmania” 1877
Oil on board
45 x 60 cm
Signed and dated lower left

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17070
Haughton Forrest (1826 – 1925)
(Hobart Town from Bellerive)
Oil on academy board
46.5 x 62 cm
Signed lower left

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15021
Haughton Forrest (1826 – 1925)
(Mt Wellington with Hobart Rivulet at Old Farm)
Oil on academy board
30 x 44 cm
Signed lower left

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18006
Charles Henry Theodore Costantini (1803 – 1860)
Portrait of Mary Tame, 1854
Watercolour on paper
20.3 x 15 cm (sight)
Signed & dated lower right

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13011, 13012 & 13013
Jemima Frances Irvine (1822 – 1918)
(Purple and Yellow Pansies) 1866, (Tulips & Bluebells) & (Orchids)
Watercolour on paper
Various sizes

Jemima Frances Irvine nee Burn (1822 – 1918) emigrated from Scotland to Tasmania with her father, playwright David Burn (c. 1799 – 1875) at the age of four. They lived initially with her grandmother at the Hamilton property Ellangowan, later moving to Rotherwood, Ouse. In 1843 she married Charles James Irvine who was appointed senior assistant superintendent at the Port Arthur penal colony. Despite the notoriety of the settlement, Irvine regarded her time spent there with fondness; ‘In those days there was a charming society at Port Arthur… all [of the officials, their clerks and their families] were intelligent, musical and altogether delightful people… We were very happy and so were many of the prisoners’.¹ Irvine later moved to Ingleside, Evandale, where she became known as an avid collector, artist and conchologist. She remained at Evandale until her death in 1918.

1. Kerr, J (1992), Dictionary of Australian Artists: Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, pp. 391 – 392

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17069
John Glover (1767 – 1849)
‘A View of Cader Idris, Snowdonia, Wales’
Oil on canvas
65 x 87 cm

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