Giclee, South Australia, colonial,  Adelaide city scenes, Hindley Street, F.R. Nixon, E.S. Wigg & Son, 1845

"Hindley Street, Looking West.-From a Sketch by F.R. Nixon, 1845"

Archival Limited Edition Giclee of an original tri-tint lithograph, hand coloured for “12 Views of Old Adelaide from Sketches in 1840-1849” published by E.S.Wigg & Son in 1886 after a series of 1845 sketches by Frederick Robert Nixon

Size of image = 13.5cm  x 19.5cm (5 1/3 x 7 2/3 inch)

Archival Edition Limited Giclee  /300. Issued with numbered certificate.

A view of Hindley street in the year the Colony's fortune were about to change, due to the discovery of the Burra Burra copper Monster Mine discovery in 1845. The scene is from a sketch nine years after South Australia's settlement. Nixon is looking West, towards the coast. Four two story building are on the right, or northern side, with all other dwellings single story.  There are three verandahs on the left side, six men in top hats/one with a cane, and one woman walking/standing on the side walk. A horse and cart is crossing the road. To the right foreground  we see one man with top-hat and cane, looking through the shop window with his saddled horse tied up to a post behind him. A red carriage has just passed him with two horses, carrying a bonnet-ed lady with blue parasol looking to her right, and a gentleman with top hat. There are ten horse posts in front of the shops they are passing. The windows are made up of several panes of glass each. Written above the windows are "BANE LEAHERS(?)", "ROBINSON", "WHITE TAILORS". THe gentle men are predominantly wearing blue jackets, hand tinted after printing the original chromolithograph.

Frederick Robert Nixon (1817-1860)

Nixon was an etcher, cartoonist, journalist and sketcher of Adelaide society after his arrival from London in May 1838 on the "Trusty". He had been appointed assistant surveyor only to be resign within months due to a disagreement with Deputy-Surveyor, George Kingston along with most of the other staff. The issue was resolved and he remained in the government's employment until he was to leave with a "female friend" for Mauritius in 1848. In the meantime, in 1841 he purchased land where in 1843 he built the second windmill in South Australia. In November 1845 he joined the Police Force. It was formed on 28 April 1838 after concerns about felons entering the new settlement from neighboring colonies. All the while he took a great interest in in the local cultural scene contributing articles, cartoons and sketches to newspapers and magazines, like we see here.