Sir Henry Parkes and Final Residence
c1890s & 1935. Plaster relief portrait with hand-painted border, and watercolour with pencil, plaster relief titled “Sir Henry Parkes” in ink verso, watercolour initialled “E.H.B.” and dated “1935” in pencil lower right with caption in ink below image, 23cm (plaster diameter) and 15.8 x 11.3cm (watercolour). Slight stains and foxing to plaster and painting respectively. Framed. Caption reads “Final Residence of Sir Henry Parkes, Johnston St, Annandale, Sydney, NSW. Died 1895.” Born in England, Sir Henry Parkes (1815–1896) was a “colonial Australian politician and longest-serving non-consecutive Premier of the Colony of NSW…He has been referred to as the ‘Father of Federation’ due to his early promotion for the federation of the six colonies of Australia…[He was] an early critic of British convict transportation and a proponent for the expansion of the Australian continental rail network. Parkes delivered his famous Tenterfield Oration in 1889...which led to his instigation of a conference in 1890 and a Constitutional Convention in 1891, the first of a series of meetings that led to the federation of Australia. He died in 1896, five years before this process was completed. He was described during his lifetime by The Times [London] as ‘the most commanding figure in Australian politics.’ [Australia’s first prime minister] Alfred Deakin described Sir Henry Parkes as having flaws but nonetheless being ‘a large-brained self-educated Titan whose natural field was found in Parliament.’” Ref: Wiki.
Item #CL203-9
Price (AUD): $2,200.00 other currencies