North The Swallows {1897} NGV [DR]

North, John W. (1842-1924; English)
The Swallows
Pen and ink and white wash, on paper, 11.5 x 15.7 cm (sheet)
Purchased, 1897 (advice of Joseph Pennell)
National Gallery of Victoria (29-2)

One of two sketches (see also North A Vesper Hymn {1897} NGV [DR]), bought together on Pennell’s advice. Both are identified in NGV 1905 as drawings for Wayside Posies: Original Poems of the Country Life, a book edited by Robert Buchanan,published by Routledge in 1867. It contained engraved illustrations based on rustic scenes by North, Frederick Walker and G.J.Pinwell, all represented in Melbourne’s pre-Felton collection.

The NGV also holds a number of the Wayside Posies engravings after North (acquired in 1952).

Refs.

AR 1896, p.24; NGV 1905, p. 56 (II.Stawell Gallery, no.74 or 75) [£15 for two drawings together] 

For other works by or after North in the NGV collection, see https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/1144/. For Wayside Posies, see http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008590137 (including a full digital reprint of the 1867 edition)