ELYARD, SAMUEL (1817-1910)

"Picnic At Jervis Bay" (c.1900)
Watercolour & bodycolour
cm
unsigned
*private collection, Shoalhaven
 
Elyard was a prominent, influential British-born Australian Colonial Artist. In his early years he became acquainted with acclaimed Colonial artist and mentor, Conrad Martens, and also John Skinner Prout, under whom he studied in the early 1840’s. Elyard was an innovative artist and can be said to be an early starter in the use of a relatively new medium, and using quality watercolours painted on a very large scale. He painted en-plein-air years before this was common practice by Australian artists. He was influenced by the light and colours of the English landscape he could be said to be one of the first Australian artists to capture, in watercolour, the land, light and colours of Australia. His works are commonplace in important National Collections for their significant historical and cultural value as some of the earliest depictions of the new colony. A resident of the Shoalhaven for many years, a favourite subject of Elyard's was the ill-fated Cape St George Lighthouse, which operated on the southern side of Jervis Bay from 1864 to 1899.