ROBERT S. RAYMENT (1839 - 1893)

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Robert Saunder Rayment was an important British Colonial watercolourist. Having studied under famous British painter, critic and teacher, John Ruskin, he emigrated to Australia in 1887. Within the first month of his arrival in Brisbane, Rayment exhibited his first three watercolours of his new city at the Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association. This artwork was one of those three. For the next six years he lived as a working artist and teacher, exhibiting both in Queensland and Victoria. However, as he was establishing himself as one of Australia's premiere colonial artists, alongside contemporaries Conrad Martens, Louis Buvelot, & Eugene Von Guerrard, he died suddenly from a massive stroke at the age of 54, described graphically in the The Telegraph in Brisbane. Very few of Rayment's works survive, and even the Queensland Art Gallery (who only have two of his later works) attest to their rarity in numerous publications. The photo shown was taken from Newstead House (oldest house in Brisbane) in 1868, close to the location where this watercolour was painted.

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