Caroline Simpson Collection

[Crows Nest House] / Conrad Martens

Martens, Conrad, 1801-1878.

[1858]

1 painting : watercolour, body colour and pencil on paper ; 33.4 x 52.8 cm.

Signed "C. Martens" lower left.

Crows Nest House (North Sydney, NSW)

Martens' account book lists the sale of this painting for 10 guineas on 13 May 1858 with the words 'Alex. Berry - his house' . [Mitchell Library ZDL MS143]. A preliminary drawing for the painting, dated 28 March 1858, exists in the Dixson Library collection of the State Library of NSW [ ZDL PXX 11, f.1]
Crows Nest House was built for Scottish-born merchant Alexander Berry (1781-1873) in 1850. Berry settled in NSW in 1819 when he formed a business partnership with Edward Wollstonecraft (1783-1832). It was Wollstonecraft who secured an initial grant of 500 acres of land on the North Shore where, according to Berry's reminiscences, Wollstonecraft built a small cottage called 'Crow's Nest', on account of its elevated and commanding position. After Wollstonecraft's death Berry renovated Crows Nest Cottage before building the larger, and 'more conveniently located' Crows Nest House.
Alexander Berry died at Crows Nest House in 1873 and the house was leased to District Court Judge Alfred McFarland who lived there with his family until 1891. Crow's Nest House was inherited by a Berry relative, Sir John Hay, who made extensive additions to the main part of the house, the stone front oriel windows and back wings, and the original stone stable. Sir John Hay died at Crow's Nest House in 1909 and the house was then occupied by Lady Hay until her death. The house was demolished in 1932 to make way for the North Sydney Demonstration School, only the entrance gates left standing as the entrance to the school.
[MM October 2005]

Berry Estate; Kenneth R. Stewart Collection; H.W.B. Chester Collection, Australian Consolidated Press; Dr John Raven, Perth; James R. Lawson auction (Sydney) 22 March 1988 lot 103; Sotheby's (Melbourne) 17 April 1989 lot 359; Masterpiece Fine Art Gallery and Antiques, Hobart 1997; Caroline Simpson Collection, Clyde Bank, The Rocks, Sydney, 1997-2004.

Douglas Dundas "Australia as seen by Conrad Martens" in The Etruscan, March-June 1961 p.20; Douglas Dundas The art of Conrad Martens 1979, p.76; Susanna Evans Historic Sydney as seen by its early artists 1983, plate 91.

S.H. Ervin Museum and Art Gallery Conrad Martens centenary exhibition 1978; Art Gallery of New South Wales Conrad Martens: the H.W.B. Chester Memorial Collection centenary exhibition 1979-1980.

Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection ; Caroline Simpson Collection: L2005/22

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Picture

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