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Lady Anne Barnard's Watercolours and Sketches: Glimpses of the Cape of Good Hope
The daughter of James Lindsay, 5th Earl of Balcarres, Lady Anne Barnard (1750-1825), was a significant and widely known member of British society. Married to Andrew Barnard she accompanied him in 1797 to the Cape where he had been appointed first Colonial Secretary under the new British administration.
From an early age Lady Anne Barnard had kept a diary and she was an accomplished artist in watercolour, recording landscape and figures with equal skill. She decided to make a record of the people she met and places she saw for her friends and family in England. In this way she created a vivid and fascinating picture of the local inhabitants, architecture, landscape and natural history of the Cape during the last years of the 18th century. Her diaries are pictures in words, and her drawings an equally lively commentary on the events of her life. They encapsulate her enthusiasm for and delight in her new home at the Cape of Good Hope.
'I like the Cape...' wrote Lady Anne Barnard in 1797, '...I love these bold strokes with which the almighty has separated the dry land from the sea in his chaos. - the Bay opens beautifully at the foot of the mountains... it is in the power of activity & taste to make this the finest scene in the world...'
In May 1798 they embarked on an adventurous journey up country, crossing the Hottentots Holland Mountains and travelling eastwards to Swellendam, then north up the Breede River valley, and across to Saldanha Bay on the west coast, returning to the Cape via Groenekloof (Mamre). Her magnificent record of this journey is also featured in the book.
| THE CONTENTS: | |
| Foreword: | The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres |
| Panorama of Cape Town | |
| Introduction: | Nicolas Barker |
| Watercolours & Sketches: | Cape of Good Hope, Journey into the Interior |
