Design and Art Australia Online

watercolourist and politician, was the second son of Walter, fifth Duke of Buccleuch and seventh Duke of Queensberry. Lord Henry studied drawing and painting at Eton where he was taught the technique of superimposing rapid watercolour washes to give depth, body and form to buildings and foliage without the preliminary use of pencil by William Evans, a skilled artist who had in turn studied under the celebrated watercolourist Peter de Wint. Due to ill-health, Lord Henry was advised at the age of 15 to avoid English winters by travelling overseas and from then on spent every winter travelling abroad with his tutor, Rev. Henry Stobart . In 1853 they embarked for South Africa, Australia, the islands of the South Pacific and India, having visited Madeira, Italy, Greece, Egypt and the West Indies in previous years.

Lord Henry, Stobart and Lord Schomberg ( Kerr ) reached Sydney on board the Resolute on 21 March 1853. Here they were entertained by Thomas Mort, by the governor and by Rev. William Clarke the geologist whom Stobart found 'a very pleasant and clever man’. Next they rode to Newcastle to visit Bishop Tyrell, former vicar of Beaulieu and a family friend of Henry’s. While they travelled, Henry filled a sketchbook with watercolours of places they visited and Stobart kept a journal. Watercolours of Newcastle, its surroundings and coastline were painted, then they rode on to Brisbane where Lord Henry made several charming watercolours of Newstead House, the home of Captain Wickham , the government resident. The collections of the John Oxley Library include a drawing of the ferry at Kangaroo Point on the Brisbane River (9 July 1853) and a watercolour of the Glasshouse Mountains. Together with George Fairholme they visited Stradbroke Island and the Nerang River; in September 1853 they left Brisbane for Sydney aboard the Zone . From Sydney they rode over the Blue Mountains, crossing at Kurrajong. Stobart wrote in his journal on 26 September 1853: 'The view from it is one of the most remarkable in the country, so much so, that I chose it as one of two views that I have had done for me by Mr Martens [q.v.], a Sydney artist’. During his first visit to Sydney, Lord Henry had taken lessons from Martens and he, too, purchased several paintings, including View of Brisbane from Kangaroo Point (now NLA) to complement his own Kangaroo Point, Brisbane , dated July 1853 (sold from Christie’s (Australia) in 1982, together with other of the party’s Brisbane and Sydney sketches). After a final week in Sydney, Lord Henry and Stobart departed for Britain by the Early Bird in October 1853, travelling via the Far East and the Pacific. He continued to paint and travel until he entered Parliament in 1861. In 1865 he married Lady Cecily Wortley Montagu. Christie’s states 'later created first Lord Montagu of Beaulieu’. (1885)

In accordance with the social mores of the time, Lord Henry painted only for his own pleasure and that of his family and friends. His work was never exhibited or sold, although under different financial circumstances he could have become a well-known watercolourist. His paintings have a charm and elegance which would have ensured their reputation and both artistic and topographical appeal. His delicate watercolours and Stobart’s journal together provide a most valuable record of colonial Australia in the 1850s.

Writers:

Vries-Evans, Susanna de

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011