Design and Art Australia Online

Nicholas Chevalier, painter, lithographer and illustrator, was born in St Petersburg on 9 May 1828, son of a Russian mother, Tatiana Onufrieva, and a Swiss father, Louis. His artistic training commenced at the Arlaud Academy, Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1845, followed by an architecture degree at the Academy of Munich (1848-50). In 1851 Chevalier travelled to London where he worked as a lithographer, and in 1852 he exhibited at the Royal Academy. He completed additional studies in Rome (1853-54).

In late 1854, Nicholas Chevalier was sent to Australia by his father to attend to family investments in a Victorian gold-mine. Soon after his arrival in Melbourne in February 1855, he travelled to the Bendigo gold-fields where he attended to business matters and completed several paintings and sketches. Chevalier returned to Melbourne and worked as an artist and cartoonist on the weekly journal Melbourne Punch. His cartoons appeared in the first edition in August 1855 and he remained in this position until 1861. He also contributed illustrations to The Australian Journal and Victoria Illustrated.

Nicholas Chevalier completed numerous sketching trips to Victorian locations and in 1862 he was appointed as the official artist on a three-month geological tour of Victoria. It is likely that he completed Buffalo Range from the west (1862, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne) during this tour. In 1864, Chevalier’s The Buffalo Ranges (1864) became the first Australian work to enter the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria when it was purchased for £200. Chevalier travelled extensively in the following decades. He settled in England in 1871 and exhibited annually at the Royal Academy from 1871-87 and in 1895. He died in England in 1902.

Writers:

Staff Writer
Sullivan, Lisa
The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2012