Eugene von Guérard

Eugene von Guérard
born Austria 1811; arrived Australia 1852; died United Kingdom 1901

View from Fritz Wilhelmberg, Herne Hill, Geelong (Mr Levien's hut on the Barwon) 1860
oil on canvas
Geelong Gallery
Gift of W Max Bell and Norman Belcher, 1923

Eugene von Guérard’s explorations of the Geelong landscape were recorded in a series of drawings on single sheets and within sketchbooks. The view depicted in this painting is from a house on Herne Hill then known as Fritz Wilhelm Berg, built by Friedrich Bauer in late 1854.

Bauer, whose name appears in an inscription on the inside back cover of von Guérard’s sketchbook, was a member of a close-knit German community with which von Guérard became connected. It is possible that this painting was commissioned by Bauer in 1854 or 1855, albeit not realized until 1860, and as such may be the first, or one of the first of von Guérard’s commissions for homestead or property portraits in Australia.