Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Painting - Oil painting, W. Langley-Taylor, Cape Schank [Schanck], Late 19th to early 20th century
... Cape Schank [Schanck]... “Cape Schank, Vic.” is incorrect. The location in this painting...Painted on front “W.LANGLEY-TAYLOR.” and “CAPE SCHANK, VIC... spelling of the title “Cape Schank, Vic.” is incorrect ...
This painting is one of a pair of large paintings by W. Langley-Taylor in our collection. Currently, no further information has been found about the artist but research is ongoing.
The subjects of these paintings are seascapes of notable areas of the coast on each side of Port Phillip Bay, south of Melbourne, Victoria.
The subject of this painting is Cape Schanck, Victoria, which is on the east side of Port Phillip Bay. It includes the Cape Schanck Lighthouse and its Flagstaff. The Cape Schanck Lighthouse was built in 1859 and is the second of Victoria’s coastal lights. It is 21 metres tall and made from limestone. Unusually, its stairway is made from stone rather than wrought iron. Gilded tours are available to explain its use and significance to visitors.
The lighthouse keepers at Cape Schanck kept records of the ships that sailed past them along Bass Strait; ship’s names, direction, time and date and so on. The details would also be passed on to shipping agencies, Harbour Masters and newspapers, which published Arrivals and Departures into and out of shipping ports such as Port Phillip Bay and the Port of Melbourne.
INSCRIPTIONS “Mrs M Irby” (and on the Eagle Rock, Warrnambool, painting “980/Regency”)
The inscription “Mrs M Irby” is on the back of both paintings but the significance of the inscription has not yet been discovered. Perhaps she was connected with the ship or shipping company “Irby”.
A ship named “Irby”, built in Merseyside, Liverpool in 1881 by R & J Evans, Birkenhead. It was a four-masted iron ship built for the White Star Line. Henry Wilson Hewitt bought her in 1882, then later she was owned by Chadwick & Pritchard. In 1888 she was registered under the Irby Ship Co. Ltd. (trading as J. Joyce) in Liverpool. In 1912 Galgate Co. Ltd owned her. She traded between London, England and Australia, and is recorded as being in Melbourne and Hobart. In 1919 the Irby was destroyed by a mine when on her way to England.
Or perhaps her name and the inscription in pencil “980/Regency” on the Eagle Rock Warrnambool, painting could be a delivery address for the paintings, perhaps an apartment in a hotel.
NOTE: The artist’s spelling of the title “Cape Schank, Vic.” is incorrect. The location in this painting is named Cape Schanck.
This painting is significant geographically for its representation of the coastal scenery of Victoria, Australia.
It is also significant as one of a pair of paintings of seascape, one at sites each side of Port Phillip Bay.
The painting is significant historically as an example of late 19th and early 20th methods and materials used to construct a painting’s frame. Painting oil on board in a dark wooden frame, portrait orientation. Seascape of coast with cliffs, lighthouse and flagstaff, flying birds, high waves breaking onto rocks, blue sky with clouds.
The title is painted on lower left corner and the Victorian artist, W. Langley-Taylor, has signed his name on lower right. The inscription on back is handwritten script in red crayon or thick red pencil.
The board is held in place inside the timber frame with small, dark metal tacks around all sides. Metal eyes join the wire to the frame. Small round, dark metal nail heads are dispersed around the frame and there is a change of colour on both the board and the wood of the frame.
Painted on front “W.LANGLEY-TAYLOR.” and “CAPE SCHANK, VIC.”
[NOTE: correct spelling is Schanck]
Handwritten on back “Mrs. M. Irby”
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