ROYAL PARK, MELBOURNE – SUMMER, 1892

Important Australian and International Fine Art
Sydney
13 September 2016
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ALBERT ALDIS

(1869 – 1921, British/New Zealand/Australian)
ROYAL PARK, MELBOURNE – SUMMER, 1892

oil on canvas

60.0 x 90.0 cm

signed and dated lower left: A.E. Aldis 1892

Estimate: 
$6,000 – 9,000
Sold for $13,420 (inc. BP) in Auction 44 - 13 September 2016, Sydney
Provenance

Private collection, Melbourne
Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 10 November 1998, Lot 132 (as 'Royal Park Summer')
Private collection, Melbourne

Catalogue text

In 1845 Governor Charles La Trobe set aside a reservation of 10.36 square kilometres for the new Royal Park as parkland and open space. Over the next one hundred and twenty years the area was significantly reduced with land allocations for Parkville residential areas, the Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens (1861), Royal Melbourne Hospital (1944) and Royal Children’s Hospital (1957). Of historical note, in 1860 the Burke and Wills expedition set out from Royal Park to cross Australia from south to north.

This view by Albert Aldis of Royal Park in summer, 1892, looks towards the Melbourne Zoo in the distance. Opened in October 1862 and modelled on the London Zoo, the Melbourne Zoo, Australia’s oldest, covers an area of 22 hectares. Today, with an area of 181 hectares, Royal Park is the largest of Melbourne's inner city parks.