OSWALD WALTER BRIERLY (BRITISH, 1817-1894)

Fogo; The Yacht ‘Wanderer’; Porto-Santo

Pencil drawings, two heightened with white

Set of three, all signed ‘O.W. Brierly’ and dated '1842'

9½ x 13¼in. (24 x 33.5cm.)

(3)

Provenance: Exhibited Hunter Museum of Art: Exhibition Sailing Ships and Ports of The Seven Seas, 3rd April – May 1982

Sir Oswald Brierly (1817-1894) studied art at the academy of Henry Sass in Bloomsbury. In 1841, after studying navigation for some time, Brierly embarked on a voyage to Australia with Benjamin Boyd in his yacht Wanderer, arriving in 1842, they made many trips along the Australian coastline where Boyd established settlements and pastoral stations between Eden and Sydney; Brierly lived in one of these new settlements where he managed Boyd's whaling operations until 1848. By 1849, Boyd was in great financial difficulty and preparing to leave the colony. The next two years proved to be disastrous for the Wanderer and Boyd. Sailing out of Port Jackson in 1849, she lost a bow anchor on the reef. In 1851, Boyd was presumed murdered by natives on the Solomon Islands and the Wanderer was wrecked off Port Macquarie on its return to Australia. Meanwhile, Brierly, avoiding this disaster, went on to join various other ventures across the coast of Australia and adjacent islands. He returned to England in 1851. After the Crimean War, he was commanded by Queen Victoria to sketch the Royal Yacht for the Great Naval Review, Spithead. Brierly went on to receive the continuous patronage of the royal family and was appointed marine painter (and personal drawing master) to Queen Victoria in 1874.

Condition Report

Time stained, would respond well to a clean

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