Unknown (Australian, 19th century)
Government House at Jolimont
Oil on card, 18 x 28.5 cm (in frame 26 x 36.5 cm)
Presented by George Brockway, 1900
State Library of Victoria (H3845)
“La Trobe’s Cottage,” as it is known now, was built for Charles La Trobe at Jolimont, near the present Melbourne Cricket Ground, in 1839, using prefabricated materials imported from England. The building survives, relocated and reconstructed, in King’s Domain, Melbourne.
The SLV holds several old drawings and photographs of the original house. However, as SLV librarian Gerard Hayes advises (July 2019), the representation shown here is most likely to be the work donated in 1900 (the size and medium correlate).
Refs.
AR 1900, p.30 (as an oil painting); NGV 1905, p.128 (V.iii.15: title as noted above; medium listed as oil on millboard, and size as 11½” x 7½”; not illustrated).
SLV catalogue: listed as “Jolimot [sic] residence of La Trobe” (title given in the SLV‘s accession register), and dated to c.1900; not reproduced (ID photo reproduced here, pending a more informative photo)
For the building, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Trobe’s_Cottage (a detailed entry); refer also SLV catalogue for other early images of it