Reference: see Douglas Stewart Fine Books press release, 17.3.2022: Ernest Decimus Stocks, 1840-1921 (attributed), The Gap, Sydney Heads.
[Probably 1879 or 1880]. Watercolour on paper, 217 x 247 (sight), initialled in the image lower right ‘E.D.S.’; in the original mat, which has a fully contemporary inscription in pencil on the verso: ‘The Gap / Sydney Heads / 21st Prize’; the work has some scattered light foxing (most visible in the sky area), but is otherwise in very good condition – no tears or marks, and with strong original colour; the mat is foxed and has traces of silver fishing.
WHY HAVE WE ATTRIBUTED THE GAP, SYDNEY HEADS TO ERNEST D. STOCKS?
Ernest Decimus Stocks (1840-1921) was a Manchester-born artist who arrived in South Australia in 1852, where he joined his uncle to work on a farm near Adelaide. In 1853, with other members of his family, he settled in Melbourne, and by 1855 he was prospecting for gold on the diggings at Ballarat. Like so many others, he failed to make his fortune, but he remained in Ballarat with his mother, sister and brothers, where he made a living as a school teacher at Durham Lead throughout the 1860s and 1870s. His earliest surviving painting – a view of Buninyong from Bowen Hill – dates from 1875. In 2005 the Geelong Art Gallery staged the exhibition Ernest Decimus Stocks 1840-1921. We have attributed the present work to this artist on the basis not only of the artist’s initials E. D. S., but also the stylistic similarities between this view of The Gap and other extant watercolour views by Stocks (see the Geelong Art Gallery catalogue for numerous examples). Furthermore, the inscription on the verso of the mat is tell-tale evidence that this work was offered by Stocks as a prize in one of the several Art Unions (which Stocks called Art Distributions) the artist is known to have organised between 1877 and 1889, commencing with a selection of views of Geelong and district in 1877. We believe the present painting was offered as one of the 31 works in Stocks’ Art Union held in Sydney in April 1880 (see below). Stocks travelled widely, making sketches and watercolours in situ and often producing larger format oil paintings based on these. Although most of his surviving work comprises views of Western and Central Victoria, he painted topographical views in Gippsland, South Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales, including scenes around Sydney Harbour. The first prize in his 1879 Art Union, held in Ballarat, was a painting titled View of Sydney, and another Sydney watercolour, South Head from Manly, is held in the Mitchell Library.
AROUND WHAT DATE WAS THE GAP, SYDNEY HEADS PAINTED?
In April 1880, Stocks conducted an Art Union in Sydney. We believe that The Gap, Sydney Heads was the twenty-first prize in this particular art lottery, which included 31 of the artist’s works. From The Sydney Daily Telegraph, 20 April 1880:
‘Mr. Ernest D, Stocks, an artist of no small repute, has now on exhibition, at Messrs. Nicholson and Ascherberg’s, George-street, Mr. Read’s, George-street, and Messrs. Brown and Aldenhoven, King-st, a number of very beautiful watercolour paintings illustrative of New South Wales and Victorian scenery (principally the former), which he intends to dispose of by art-union at as early a date as possible. In addition to pictures on view in Sydney there are some at Mr. Hillmore’s, Auburn-street, Goulburn. The pictures are 31 in number and are painted with great fidelity to the characteristics of our colonial scenery. The first shows Sydney Heads taken from the heights above the entrance to Middle Harbour. The South Head comes boldly into view, with Watson’s Bay lying to the right. The second gives a view of the Blue Mountains taken from a standpoint close to Richmond, looking across the fertile valley of the Hawkesbury. The third is a scene on the Hawkesbury from just below the bridge which leads across the Richmond River. In the background are the Blue Mountains and the Gorge of the Grose. “Wagga Wagga from above the Southern Railway Station,” forms the subject of the fifth painting ; and a sixth shows the south-eastern corner of Lake Corangamite and part of the celebrated run of Messrs. Robertson. The remaining views include — “Prince Regent Glen ;” “Wentworth Falls ;” “Confluence of Snowy and Buchan, Victoria ;” “Mount Hay, Blue Mountains ;” “Yass River ;” “Govett’s Leap ;” “Dangan Doore (Lake Tyers ,Gippsland) ;” “Botanical Gardens ;” “River Murray, Albury ;” “Port Jackson, from above Manly ;” “Towards Broken Bay ;” “Garden Island Clark Island
and Double Bay ;” “Glen, near Weatherboard ;” “The Gap ;” “The Zigzag ;” “Mount Bogong, Victoria ;” “The Cleft, near Gap ;” “Mulwarri Creek ;” “Pulpit Rock, Blue Mountains ;” Manly Town and Pacific ;” ” View from North Harbour ;” “Buffalo Range, Victoria ;” Mount Feathertop—Sunset ;” “Rocks, Breadalbane.” The paintings are valued at 100 guineas, and they are to be disposed of by means of 800 tickets at 10s each. The winner will be supervised by Messrs. J. A. Roberts G. Munro, J. S. Jamieson, J. C. W. Nicholson, J. Gardyne and C. C. Skaratt.’
A NOTE ON THE FIGURE IN WHITE AT CENTRE LEFT OF THE PAINTING
The Gap is a notorious place for suicides, the first one recorded there being that of Anne Harrison, wife of the former licensee of The Gap Hotel, who jumped to her death in the early hours of 6 October, 1863.
An intriguing detail in this painting – a deliberate touch of artistic license, in our opinion – is the ghostly human form depicted in the middle ground on the left of the picture. Dressed in a long white coat and wearing a white hat, the figure has proceeded well beyond the safety fence, and is shown on the perilous outcrop, bent forward in motion, seemingly with the intent to throw themselves from the precipice onto the rocks below.
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