Neutral Bay, Sydney Harbour by PAINE, John 1833-1908, attributed

Circa 1880. Albumen print photograph, 115 x 185 mm, laid down on a section of its original album page of thin card, contemporary caption in pencil across lower margin, the albumen print in excellent condition, the card with some very mild toning. This view, looking across the harbour from the heights of Neutral Bay to Fort Denison, with Elizabeth Bay and Darling Point in the distance, is taken from almost the same vantage point as John Paine's photograph of 1881 (see National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an10691479-2), and may well also have been taken by Paine. A small number of buildings in the 1881 view are not present in the photograph we offer here, suggesting that this albumen print dates to around 1880. Note the seated figure in the foreground, placed in the composition to give a sense of scale. It is interesting to compare this view with Conrad Martens' oil painting of 1857, View of Neutral Bay (National Gallery of Australia, Accession No: NGA 75.58), which was executed in roughly the same spot just two decades earlier but shows remarkably few buildings.