O’Brien Grand-view Park, Pascoe Vale {1868} SLV [DR]

O’Brien, George (1821-88; Irish/New Zealander)
Grand-view Park, Pascoe Vale
Pencil and wash on toned paper, 20 x 34 cm
Donated by John Pascoe Fawkner, 1868
State Library of Victoria (H253)

This is one of a number of works donated by Fawkner in 1868, including several drawings and watercolours of early Melbourne by O’Brien.

The early NGV catalogues do not name the artist, but O’Brien, who seems the most likely candidate, is identified as the artist in the NGV’s unpublished list of pre-1905 acquisitions (under 1868). The work is most plausibly regarded as dating from the artist’s documented period in Melbourne from 1850 to c.1858. 

Refs.

AR 1870-71, p.34 (under drawings donated by Fawkner); NGV 1894, p.116 (V.Buvelot Gallery, 3^rd bay, no.54); NGV 1905, p.126 (V.Buvelot Gallery, 3^rd bay, no.5)