John Campbell’s first ever recorded work, View of Launceston
Michelle Wisbey, Campbell work up for auction, The Examiner, Thursday July 30 2015
John Campbell’s first ever recorded work, View of Launceston, is expected to sell for more than $100,000 at auction next month. The 1881 oil painting was only recently discovered and will be put on the market for the first time in its history in August. The painting has been in a private collection until now.
The painting depicts the Tamar River, looking towards Kings Bridge and over the city from the Cataract Gorge, and confirms Campbell’s presence in Launceston at the time. Campbell was born in Scotland in 1855 but it was previously unknown when he arrived in Australia and where he spent a few years before he settled in Western Australia. Until the discovery of View of Launceston, his earliest known work was Brisbane River from North of Victoria painted in 1887.
The painting was put in a raffle in Launceston soon after it was completed as a fundraising event for Campbell. Launceston architectural historian Eric Ratcliff determined that the steamships with black and white funnels in the background belonged to the Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company, which would travel between Launceston and Melbourne. The Tamar Rowing Club boatshed, the red brick Commissariat Store of 1829 and the Paterson Street Methodist Church can also be seen.
Campbell’s work will be up for auction at Deutscher and Hackett’s Important Australian and International Fine Art sale in Sydney on August 26. Chris Deutscher, the company’s executive director, said that he was very excited when he first saw the piece. ‘‘It’s his most ambitious picture with very fine detail which depicts Launceston in those days,’’ Mr Deutscher said. ‘‘It’s a colonial picture at the very end of the colonial era. It’s an old world meets new world picture.’’