Design and Art Australia Online

painter and architectural draughtsman, was born in Scotland, son of an Edinburgh piano-maker. He attended Dean’s School and William Cairn’s Academy in Edinburgh, after which he worked for a short time as an architectural draughtsman with his brother John. R.S. Anderson emigrated to Victoria in 1851 and there painted views of the Castlemaine district. An oil painting, Mount Alexander Gold Diggings (1851, Dixson Galleries), appears to be the original for the lithograph Mount Alexander Gold Diggings, Australia. Sketched on the Spot by R.S. Anderson Esqre., late of Edinburgh (Mitchell Library; National Library of Australia) which was published by Mackay & Kirkwood of Glasgow for subscribers to the Glasgow Examiner on 30 October 1852. The print also appeared in Anderson’s Guide to Emigrants to Australia , published the same year.

Anderson soon moved to Sydney and was employed as a clerk in the Post Office. He prepared the plans for extensions to Mortimer Lewis’s Post Office building. In 1856 he travelled to Wellington, New Zealand, in the schooner Ariel and worked in the Provincial Survey Office. He returned to Melbourne in April 1857 but went back to Auckland in July. After working with his brother on a farm at Otaki near Whangarei in 1858, he settled permanently in Auckland from January 1859 and again worked as a clerk and draughtsman. He died in the Provincial Hospital, Parnell, on 14 March 1874.

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Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011