John Campbell | Greenwich House 1892 | SOLD
John Campbell 1855-1924
Greenwich House 1892- 21 George Street, Greenwich Point Sydney.
Home of Gother Kerr Mann (1809-1899)
This house was thought to have been built in the 1820s. The land was granted to George Green a boatbuilder in 1824.
The house was built to be used as an inn, but the application for an inn license was refused and Green converted the building into a house which was named Willoughby House.
It was renamed Greenwich House in 1854.
Gother Mann, the first commissioner of railways and engineer in chief at Cockatoo island dock purchased the house and land in 1853 from George Green for 1250 GBP. He lived in the property with a family of 12. The house remained in the hands of descendants until 1949.
John Campbell known for painting historic houses and buildings around Sydney has signed this work 1892.
(Extract from Early Colonial Homes of The Sydney Region 1788-1838- Daphne Kingston)
Below is an contemporary image of the house today, the terracotta chimneys are evident.
Watercolour and ink on paper watermarked Whatmans upper left
43.3 x 66cm
Signed and dated
John Campbell Artist 1892
SOLD
Biography
A scenic artist, sign writer and decorator, John Campbell migrated to Australia from Scotland probably in the early 1880s, working in New South Wales and Queensland before moving to Western Australia around the turn of the 20th century.
His detailed house portraits and landscapes in oil and watercolour form a valuable record of late colonial buildings and cities, particularly Perth, and he is represented in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Mitchell Library and the Caroline Simpson Library of the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. He is included in two broad historical surveys of colonial Western Australian art and was the subject of a monographic exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2003.
Represented:
State library of NSW
Royal WA Historical Society
National Gallery of Australia
University of Western Australia
Homes a court collection
Historic Houses Trust Conservation Resource Centre- NSW
Art Gallery of Western Australia
