The Challicum Sketch Book 1842-53

Book excerpt: The nineteenth century squatter and painter Duncan Elphinstone Cooper spent about thirteen years of his life in the Western District of Victoria where he painted the fifty-four pictures presented in this volume. Most of these are from Cooper's The Challicum Sketch Book, now a treasured part of the collections of the National Library of Australia; the paintings deal almost exclusively with the grazing property of that name — from tent to house and beyond.