NHD33/40

Koala

‘Phascolarctos cinereus’

Original inscriptions: [on reverse] ‘Coola, an animal of the Oppossum Tribe from New South Wales’

Further inscriptions:

Artist: Lewin, John William

Medium: Watercolour

Size:

Note: London-born Lewin's father, William Lewin, was an artist and naturalist who produced a seven-volume work, ‘Birds of Great Britain’ (1789-94). The younger Lewin went to Australia in 1800, and worked in Sydney as a portrait painter and teacher of art. Having been attached to surveying expeditions of Australia, he produced the following books: ‘Prodromus Entomology, Natural History of Lepidopterous Insects of New South Wales’, published in London 1805, and ‘Birds of New Holland’, published in 1808. An 1813 edition of the latter publication was the first illustrated book to be engraved and printed in Australia. In 1814, he was appointed city coroner by Governor Macquarie, who he also accompanied during the construction of a road across the Blue Mountains. Lewin was further commissioned to draw plants collected by the surveyor-general Henry Oxley in his explorations of the country. Besides recording Australia’s fauna and flora, Lewin also executed landscapes and portraits of the Aborigines.