Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Picnic at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, c. 1855

Picnic at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, c. 1855

Oil painting

Presented by Sir William Dixson

DG 265


This painting depicts the first Anniversary Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour held on 26 January 1837, the 49th anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet. The boat races are the oldest continuously conducted in the world, and are known today as the Australia Day Regatta.

The significance of this painting for experts in the study of flags (vexillologists) is that it includes the NSW Ensign, the unofficial flag for Australia from the mid 19th Century; and that it is being flown on land, rather than on a vessel.


It is unclear is whether the depiction of Mrs Macquarie's Chair greatly out of scale with the miniature figures is intentional, or the result of assumptions by an artist unfamiliar with the location. 


Costume features such as tiered skirts suggest a date of 1855 – 1860.


Mrs Macquarie’s Chair was a key vantage point on Sydney Harbour for spectators. Victuallers dispensed food and drink from allocated booths, while pie-men hawked their wares among the general foreshore crowds and fraudsters spruiked their dubious games of chance.

Anne Coote, ‘Celebration of Anniversary Day to 1900’, Dictionary of Sydney, 2008


26 January 1837 was a Thursday.