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.
Anniversary Regatta, Sydney Harbour
By Elizabeth Ellis, 1999
The inaugural Anniversary (or
Foundation Day, as it was first known) Regatta on Sydney Harbour took place on
26 January 1837 to commemorate the landing of the First Fleet. The regatta
continues to this day. Likewise, picnics at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair are part of
every Sydneysider’s mythology and it is a favourite tourist destination.
The artist of this colourful record
of the 1850s is not known, although John Black Henderson, a Sydney artist and
surveyor, produced a separately issued lithograph based on the painting about
1870. The painting was reproduced in the Sydney
Mail of 30 January 1897 (when it was in the hands of John C Lovell,
‘furniture, warehousemen and fine art dealers’ of George Street, Sydney) and in
the Anchor, 5 October 1911.
The Nicholson Chart
By Ralph Bartlett (President, Flags Australia)
This painting verifies that the NSW
Ensign in the Nicholson Chart of 1832 was used on and about Sydney Harbour.
This ensign would go on to be the flag of the Australasian
Federation League in the 1890s and the first unofficial flag of the new
Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.
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