Eugene von Guérard left a working record on the back of his 1855 painting of Tower Hill. On its wooden stretcher, a pencil calendar begins with a cross beside Wednesday, 15 August. Weekly totals accumulate until Friday, 5 October: 52 days counted across the project. The National Gallery of Victoria reported finding it during a conservation examination. [1]
The commission came from pastoralist James Dawson. Von Guérard had passed through Dawson’s Kangatong station while returning from a sketching journey; he painted the view in his Melbourne studio. The volcanic landscape, Koroitj to Eastern Maar peoples, lies near Warrnambool. [1][2][3]
Where is this place?
Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve, Victoria. This map locates the town or region, not a verified exact historic event site.
The painting preserves another stage of its making beneath the colour. Von Guérard first laid out the composition in pencil, and the NGV’s examination used infrared imaging to reveal that underdrawing. The hidden sketch and the calendar record different parts of the job: arranging the view, then tracking the time spent on it. [1]
By the following century, people working at Tower Hill were looking at the painted vegetation for another reason. Grazing, tree clearing, quarrying and other uses had damaged the reserve. A restoration programme began in 1961, and the detailed landscape later helped guide revegetation. Warrnambool Art Gallery’s account cautions that this work did not undo all the earlier destruction. [3]
Effie Thornton presented the canvas in 1966. Today it is on loan to Warrnambool Art Gallery from Victoria’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. [3]