Conrad Martens b. 1801

Also known as C. M.
  • Artist (Draughtsman),
  • Artist (Printmaker),
  • Artist (Painter)
Well-travelled (South America, South Pacific and Australasia) English colonial watercolourist, oil painter, lithographer, sketcher and landscape artist who is one of the better known 19th century artists of Sydney. Martens kept good records and was able to make a living out of his work. However, he did work as a librarian and sometimes paid off wine bills with drawings.

Citations

  • Thomas, D., North, I., & McCarthy F. (1972), 'The Australian Landscape’.

  • Dundas, D. (1966), 'Conrad Martens’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, ed. Pike, D., Melbourne, Vic, vol. 2.

  • (1976), 'The Respectable Sydney Merchant: A.B. Spark of Tempe’, eds. Abbott, G. & Little, G., Sydney, NSW.

  • Bonyhady, T. (1985), 'Images in Opposition’, Melbourne, Vic.

  • Ellis, Elizabeth (1994), 'Conrad Martens: selected sketches 1835-1872’, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  • Kerr, J. (1983), 'Our Great Australian Architect Edmund Thomas Blacket (1817-1883)’, Sydney, NSW.

  • Keynes, R.D. (1979), 'The Beagle Record’, London, England, UK.

  • Lindsay, L. (1968), 'Conrad Martens: The Man and his Art’, Sydney, NSW, revised edition.

  • (1988), 'The Artist and the Patron’, eds. McDonald, P. R. & Pearce, B, Art Gallery of NSW catalogue, Sydney, NSW.

  • Nicholas, F. W. & Nicholas, J. M. (1989), 'Charles Darwin in Australia’, Cambridge, England, UK.

  • Pearce, B. (1979), 'Conrad Martens: The H.B.W. Chester Memorial Collection Sydney’, Sydney, NSW.

  • Sayers, A. (1989), 'Drawing in Australia’, Canberra, ACT.

  • Smith, B. (1984), 'European Vision and the South Pacific’, Sydney, NSW, revised edition.

  • Steele, J. G. (1978), 'Conrad Martens in Queensland’, Brisbane, Qld.

  • Terry, M. (1984), 'Conrad Martens and the Zig Zag Railway’, Art and Australia vol. 21, no. 4.

  • (1986), 'Conrad Martens: Bush Trails and Squatters’ Runs’, Armidale, NSW.

  • Martens, C., 'Correspondence and Notebooks’, Dixon Library and Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  • Gray, J. (1959), 'Conrad Martens’, BA thesis, University of Melbourne, Vic.

  • Organ, M. (1987), 'Conrad Martens in the Illawarra 1835: In search of the picturesque’, Wollongong, NSW, typescript.

  • (1851), 'Almanac’, W. & F. Ford, Sydney, NSW.

  • Sydney Morning Herald, 1847-07-26; 1849-12-27; 1855-03-22.

  • Information sourced from Lennon, J.

  • Ellis, Elizabeth (1994), 'Conrad Martens: life & art’, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  • Dundas, D. (1961), 'Australia as seen by Conrad Martens’, Etruscan, March-June (reprinted Australasian Antique Collector, vol. 1, 1966).

See also

  • 'IMAGE: Conrad Martens, The Funeral of Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King. Died 26th February 1856, 1856, watercolour, 43.2 x 63.5 cm. Mitchell Library'.
  • 'IMAGES: Viaducts on the descent to the Lithgow Valley, 1872, pencil, watercolour, gouache, gum arabic on cardboard, National Gallery of Australia, reproduced National Australia Bank Calendar, 2000.'.

Initial data sources

  • The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870