• Title
  [Male and female red kangaroo in a Liverpool Plains landscape, ca. 1819 / attributed to J.W. Lewin]
• Creator
  J. W. (John William) Lewin, 1770-1819
• Call number
  ML 852
  Status: On display – Paintings from the Collection, Room 3, North Wall, no. 267
  
• Level of description
  series
• Date
  
  ca. 1819
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Paintings
• Reference code
  440373
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 painting - 37.5 x 62.8 cm. - oil
  
• Scope and Content
  The painting features a grey and a red kangaroo.
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Artist died before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  Most likely painted by John Lewin in 1819, the landscape background to this painting relates to an original sketch of the Liverpool Plains and Warrumbungle Ranges, made by George William Evans in 1818 whilst on John Oxley's second inland expedition. -- Reference: E. Imashev, ""Thou Spirit of Australia"", in Creating Australia, 200 years of art 1788-1988 / by the Art Gallery of South Australia ; Ed. & introduced by D. Thomas ; [Sydney] : International Cultural Corporation of Australia [and] Art Gallery Board of South Australia, 1988.
  
  The painting was most likely painted in Lewin's studio in Sydney, composed from specimens or skins of the red kangaroo (or Macropus rufus) Oxley brought back to Sydney from the Liverpool Plains. Oxley records seeing many kangaroos on these plains, noting on August 6 1818 that ""We killed this day one of the largest kangaroos we had seen in any part of New South Wales..."", John Oxley 'Journals of two expeditions into the interior of New South Wales', London, John Murray, 1820, p.258.
  
  The scene depicted is very similar to a signed and dated painting held in the National Library of Australia, in the Rex Nan Kievell collection (NLA ref. NK139/A), and may be another version of the latter (see photograph held at SPF/Kangaroos, 1819 Mitchell Library).
  Digital order no:a128861
• Subject
  Kangaroos--Pictorial works.
  
• Topic
  colonial art
  landscapes (artwork)
  
• Exhibited in
  
  A Rage for Curiosity
  Pride of place
  Lewin: Wild Art
  NSW Parliament House: Long term loan
  Paintings from the Collection

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