WILLIAM THOMAS STRUTT (1825-1915)

The present drawing is a study for the stand of gum trees in the background of Strutt's Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia 1852 exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1887, now in The University of Melbourne Art Collection. The drawing presumably a field sketch taken in Victoria in 1852: 'William Strutt's painting Bushrangers on the St Kilda Road graphically illustrates the armed hold-up of travellers within a few miles of Melbourne during a quiet October afternoon in 1852. Strutt was living at Brighton (which lay beyond St Kilda) at the time and the robbery held particular significance for him.' (A. McCulloch, Artists of the Australian Gold Rush, Melbourne, 1976, p.38)

In July 1850 Strutt had arrived in Melbourne, quickly finding work as an illustrator at the Illustrated Australian Magazine. With the exception of a year in New Zealand, he was to spend the next twelve years in Melbourne, depicting some of the biggest events in Victoria's history during this time including Port Philip's separation from New South Wales in November 1850 and the subsequent formation of a self-governing colony, the gold fever that accompanied the Victorian Gold Rush from 1851, and the Burke and Wills expedition in 1860. For a large collection of Strutt's Australian drawings on similar blue mounts see the property consigned by the artist's family, Christie's South Kensington, 29 May 1984, lots 150-157.