unknown artist, (convict at Norfolk Island) eighteenth century
Title:
Pine Tree
Date:
undated
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor and graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper mounted on fabric
Dimensions:
Sheet: 23 1/8 × 17 1/4 inches (58.7 × 43.8 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in pen and brown ink, lower center: "a scale of 10 feet"; inscribed on verso in pen and brown ink, lower right: "1793"; inscribed on associated support: "A Drawing, done by one of the Convicts at Norfolk Island, of that Giant of the Vegetable World the Pine Tree. | This Astonishing tree is common upon Norfolk Island and when some of them, decay’d with age, fall the noise & Crack is heard a great | distance. One fell and destroy’d a Hut containing a Man His wife & several Children all of whom were crush’d to death. This Hut was | < . . . > distant from the tree. Some of these trees have been measured upwards of 280 feet high & 10 feet diameter. D. White in his [ . . . ]"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection