Pulpit Rock, Cape Schanck, Victoria

A keen artist–traveller in the Romantic tradition, Nicholas Chevalier concentrated on effects of atmosphere, mood and dramatic lighting in his depictions of the iconic natural wonders he found at Cape Schanck, on the southernmost tip of Mornington Peninsula.

When Chevalier sketched the fantastically carved shapes of the rocks at Cape Schanck, he chose not to include any hints of human presence, although this remote part of the Victorian coast was already a tourist attraction for Melburnians in the 1860s.