Portrait of Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell

This formally dressed British nobleman sits in his grand study, yet the colonnade curiously opens onto the mountainous wilds of Australia. By including the distant mountains, the portrait painter William Beechey highlights the sitter’s crowning achievement. As surveyor-general of the British colony of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell explored the Australian interior and mapped the Darling and Glenelg Rivers. Beechey further commends Mitchell by placing the title page of his book on the writing table. Called Survey of Glenelg, it features Mitchell’s map of New South Wales.

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