Historical information

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.

Significance

This painting is geographically significant for its depiction of Victoria’s coastal scenery.
It is also significant as one of a pair of seascapes depicting sites on either side of Port Phillip Bay.
Historically, the painting is significant as an example of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century methods and materials used in frame construction.

Physical description

Oil on board, in a dark-stained wooden frame, portrait format. The composition depicts a seascape with cliffs, a lighthouse and a flagstaff, birds in flight, waves breaking against rocks, and a blue sky with clouds.
The title is painted at the lower left. The work is signed at lower right by the Victorian artist W. Langley-Taylor. A handwritten inscription in red crayon or heavy red pencil appears on the reverse.
The board is fixed within the timber frame by small dark metal tacks. Metal eyes secure the hanging wire to the frame. Small round nail heads are visible around the frame, and both the board and the wood exhibit colour change.
The handwritten inscription runs vertically along the lower left edge of the board. The wire hangs in a shallow curve, and the mitred corners are reinforced with staples. The board shows some damage. The discolouration visible on both the board and frame may indicate the former presence of a backing paper, once attached to the reverse with tape and tacks.

Inscriptions & markings

Painted on front “W.LANGLEY-TAYLOR.” and “CAPE SCHANK, VIC.”
[NOTE: correct spelling is Schanck]
Handwritten on back “Mrs. M. Irby”