AUCTION | Aboriginal Works of Art | 4 June 2019

LOT #89 Samuel Lock (1822-1881) Corroboree South Australia, c.1840 22 x 31 cm : Frame 45 x 53 cm watercolor on paper $3,000 - 5,000 PROVENANCE Purchased by the current owner from antiquarian book seller in London, 2006 Private Collection, Vic Samuel Robert Lock was educated at King’s College, Cambridge, and became a self - taught miniature painter. He travelled to South Australia in 1839 when 17 years of age and was employed as artist in the Government Survey Office. He subsequently visited Tasmania & Pacific Islands. This small watercolour work depicting a corroboree is believed to have been painted when in his 20s near Victor Harbor/Lake Alexandrina south east of Adelaide.

On his return to England, Lock worked as a photographic painter and later opened a Regent Street studio for miniature painting, converting Talbotypes into miniatures. He worked in London for the next 20 years where he exhibited at the Royal Academy during the years 1849 to 1854. He moved to Brighton in 1877, but died 4 years later after contracting Bronchitis in Italy while on a trip to Europe & Middle East.