PREFACE 



WHEN I undertook the writing of an essay on Conrad 

 Martens and his times, I expected to make, not an 

 addition to the already large volume of art-criticism, 

 but a simple contribution to the history of Australian 

 art. Gradually, as the hidden treasures of the Dixson and other 

 collections came to light, and Martens' own diaries and letters 

 brought me into closer touch with the man himself, my interest 

 quickened ; for I saw that here was an artist who had been 

 hampered by the necessity of doing topographical work for a 

 livelihood, yet had revealed in half a dozen masterpieces the 

 natural bent of his talent and a rare instinct for his medium. 

 Had Martens remained in England, 1 believe that urged 

 by ambition and fortified by contemporary standards of work- 

 he would have left a name high amongst the water-colourists 

 of his day. It was his fate, happily for us, to be the Pilgrim 

 Father of art at the Antipodes, and to lay the corner stone 

 of our Landscape Art. 



I wish to express my thanks for much valuable assistance 

 in the preparation of this book : To Mr. William Dixson, 

 for carefully collected data concerning Martens' life ; Mr. 

 G. V. F. Mann, Director of the National Gallery of New South 

 Wales, whose knowledge of Martens* work is second to none, 

 and with whom I shared the pleasure of selecting from the mass 

 of it the pictures reproduced here ; the Trustees of the National 

 Gallery and the Mitchell Library ; Miss Macarthur Onslow, Miss 

 Combes, Miss Rose Scott, and Messrs. W. H. Ifould, Hugh 

 Wright, J. J. Quinn, W. H. Hargraves, C. H. Bertie, Neville 

 W. Cayley and Joseph Pearson. 



Messrs. Hartland and Hyde have made the engravings, and 

 Messrs. W. C. Penfold and Co. Ltd. have printed them, with 

 their accustomed skill and care. 



Lionel Lindsay. 



