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
