First Fleet artwork collection

A monochrome view across Sydney Cove from the western shore, depicting the buildings organised around a clearly defined network of tracks which serve to guide the eye through the settlement and the composition. It is executed in broad washes with linear definition of various features.A track leads from the centre foreground of the composition over the brow of a slight incline. It reappears in the mid-distance to the right surrounded by the hospital buildings with the hospital wharf and gantry on the shore to the left, leading towards a clump of trees by the Tank Stream. The track continues round the far shore of the cove towards the various officers' houses and Government wharf, where a boat can be seen supported in stocks (this is also depicted in Watling drawings 20 and 14). A broad track leads up towards Government House, the gardens of which appear more overgrown than in earlier drawings. The hill behind the settlement is empty, and Dixson (1923) points out that Watling has omitted to draw buildings that should be there. A ship is anchored in the Cove, partially obscured by bushes in the foreground which act as a compositional device to link the foreground and the far shore. A small boat occupied by three figures in European dress is depicted approaching the ship. The sky is painted in washes of grey, with unpainted areas and ink outlines defining the clouds. The drawing is framed by a roughly drawn black ink border, signed by Watling and annotated in black and brown ink below the border.