Mr JW Lewin, Painter & Naturalist

Author, illustrator, printmaker and natural historian, John William Lewin created the first illustrated book ever published in Australia – Birds of New South Wales, in 1813. Featuring more than 150 exquisite artworks, Mr JW Lewin takes a fascinating look at Lewin’s life and work, his place in colonial Australian society and the natural history craze that swept the world at that time. When Lewin arrived in New South Wales in 1800, the fledgling colony was by no means a favoured destination for artistic, ambitious Englishmen. Yet to Lewin, Australia was simply ‘the finest country in the world’, and it offered him the respectability and social standing he could never have found in England. Written by Richard Neville, Mitchell Librarian at the State Library of New South Wales, this book is a visually stunning testament to Lewin’s artistic legacy.