watercolourist, painted naive and meticulously detailed views of Victorian gold-mines from about 1866 to 1881. His 'Mounts Bay, St Michael’s Mount and Penzance from Gulval Cairn, Cornwall, England , dated 16 December 1866 (offered for auction at Sotheby’s 'Fine Australian and European Paintings’, Melbourne, 28-29 April 1998, lot 299: from the Ritchie collection), perhaps offers a clue to his background even though it was painted after he came to Australia. Otherwise nothing is known about the artist, who left a considerable body of watercolour views, often quite large and panoramic in scope. In Australia, he seems to have lived mainly in Creswick and Ballarat.
Like his contemporary William Tibbits , whose early watercolours are closely comparable, Moyle made pictures of private property, presumably also on commission. His earliest known watercolours date from 1866: Ballarat Extension Rose Hill and Great Northern Junction Gold Mining Company’s Dead Horse, September 6th, 1866 (Creswick Historical Museum) and View of Ballaarat Extension Rose & Great Northern Junction Gold Mining Companies (LT). Farm Residence of Mr Newton near Kingston (1873, Creswick Historical Museum) is a domestic subject, but most of his paintings depict open-cut quartz-crushing mines. A very large View of the Lord Malmesbury Gold Mining Company’s Claim (on loan Kyneton Museum) was painted in 1875; A View of the Cunnings Freehold Gold Mining Companies’ Claim, Spring Hill near Creswick (BFAG) is dated 8 February 1876. Three further 1876 watercolours of the Creswick district are in the local historical museum: Baron Rothschild Gold Mining Company’s Claim Ltd , Harrison’s Munster Arms Hotel and Store and Panoramic View of Creswick from Maiden Hill . Moyle’s latest known work is a Ballarat subject, A View of Sergeant Hick’s, Williams, Smith’s, Wilson’s and the Washington Quartz Gold Mining Company’s Claims, Redan, Skipton Street Ballarat, January, 1881 (BFAG).
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 1989
