|
|
Australian sketches of Richard Read
| Title |
Australian sketches of Richard Read |
| Reference |
GBR/0115/RCMS 296
(former reference: MSS 8c99R) |
| Creator |
Read, Richard, b c 1765, artist in Australia |
| Covering Dates |
circa 1820–1983 |
| Extent and Medium |
1box file; art work/paper/photograph |
| Repository |
Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library |
|
| Content and context |
|
The artist Richard Read, who was born around 1765, was sent to Australia as a convict. He was probably the father of a second Richard Read, a free settler who worked on the same street in Sydney. The Reads are known to art historians as Richard Read Senior and Richard Read Junior.
Thrity-five sketches of birds and other images, two photographs and correspondence regarding Richard Read, including biographical information.
The pictures in the collection were discovered by Mr C.E. Greening, a descendant of Richard Read, while turning out his parents' home in 1962. He deposited them in the R.C.S. Library in January 1963. After his retirement Mr Greening began researching his family history, and in September 1978 allowed the R.C.S. Librarian to photocopy his correspondence regarding Read. The two photographs in the collection were also presented by Mr Greening.
|
Access and Use
|
Please cite as Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Australian sketches of Richard Read, RCMS 296 |
| Further information |
|
MSS Addenda, vol. III. Indexed
This collection level description was created by RAS using information from the original typescript catalogue.
Photocopies of the pictures were made by the London representative of the Public Library of New South Wales, 1977.
|
| Index Terms |
| Australia |
| Oceania |
| Read, Richard (b c 1765) artist in Australia |
| RCS/RCMS 296 contains: |
|
1
|
Art work. There are 21 pencil and watercolour sketches of birds, some crudely finished, six of which are endorsed 'drawn from nature by R. Read Snr.' and dated 1820. In February 1963 Dr Averill Lysaght asserted that at least some of the pictures were copied, or even traced, from Latham's 'General synopsis of birds' (see Lysaght's letter in RCMS 296/3). The remaining pieces include pencil drawings of fruit; capitals and entablatures; a scene from the 'Iliad'; a seated nude man; and a coastal scene, probably of Sydney Heads. There is also an unfinished pencil and watercolour portrait of a man; a watercolour portrait of a young man, mounted on a board, signed 'R. Read 1832' (later than any known work by Read Senior); and six coloured lithographs of Sydney.
36 plastic sleeves; art work. |
circa 1820-circa 1832 |
|
2
|
Photographs. A photograph of a self-portrait of Richard Read Senior painted in London, 1808, and another of an elderly couple, possibly Richard Read Junior and his wife. Both photographs are undated.
2 photographs; photograph. |
|
|
3
|
Correspondence. Photocopies of correspondence between Mr C.E. Greening, the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and others regarding Richard Read, 1971-1983, including copies of related documents. There is also the original correspondence of Greening with the Royal Commonwealth Society, 1962-1963 and 1978-1983, and five pages of biographical notes.
11 folders; paper; Mixed. |
1963–1983 |
|
![[Home]](/images/logo.gif){kind=logo}
