Picnic at The Rocks1952

The Sydney Harbour Bridge was just 20 years old when this work was painted by Roland Wakelin. Originally from New Zealand, he became a central figure in the development of modernism in Australian art in the early twentieth century. He specialised in rural landscapes and urban scenes exemplified in this work.

The view from Sydney’s Observatory Hill, looking along Lower Fort Street at The Rocks, remains relatively unchanged to this day, largely due to the efforts of The Rocks Residents Group which formed in 1971.