View of the Heads, Port Jackson

This painting, View of the Heads, Port Jackson, was created by Conrad Martens in the 1840s. Martens was a significant colonial artist who documented the Australian landscape in the early years of European settlement.

The context is the mapping and visual celebration of the new British territory. Martens' work was intended for audiences both in Australia and Britain, capturing the dramatic beauty of Sydney Harbour's entrance. He used a grand, romantic style to emphasize the vastness of the new land, often including detailed sailing ships to show the link to the wider world.

Martens admired the work of 17th-century French artist Claude Lorrain and the most famous British artist of his age, JMW Turner. Under their influence, he has accentuated the drama of the scene - rain clouds forming and a shaft of light falling on the foam of a breaking wave in a heaving sea. It is a boldly realized work with strong diagonals and contrasts of light and dark.