painter and art teacher, came to Sydney late in 1865 from Bristol, Somerset, bringing with him paintings of English and Welsh landscapes and studies of fruit and birds. Cawker claimed to have studied at the Royal Academy and to have been a pupil of the English genre and historical painter Francis Stephen Cary (1808-80). He also stated that he had recently been elected an associate of the Bristol Academy of Arts. He exhibited A Study from Nature (4 guineas) at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1857 and Primrose Bank – Study (4 guineas) the following year, his address then being 2 Tavistock Street, Bedford Square, London.
The paintings Cawker brought to NSW, described as 'romantic scenes in Wales and the West of England’, were displayed at his Sydney residence, 24 O’Connell Street. The Sydney Morning Herald praised his detail, particularly 'the elaborate finish of every part of the pictures; each object is brought out with admirable distinctness, and the foliage would seem to have been drawn leaf for leaf from nature’. He offered to give lessons in oil and watercolour painting when living at 282 Palmer Street and was listed as an artist in both Sands Sydney Directory and the Post Office Directory for 1867.
L. G. Cawker drew the capture of the bushranger Dunn for the Illustrated Sydney News 16 February 1866, p.4. No other Australian work is known.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 1989
