Portrait of Ludwig Leichhardt

Out of Copyright

1 print : handcol. lithograph ; image 15.5 x 12.9 cm., sheet 32.0 x 22.6 cm. The lithographic text in German which accompanies the picture is an excerpt from a letter to Leichhardt's brother-in-law in Prussia, dated Sydney, 18 April 1846, in which Leichhardt tells of his hero's welcome in Sydney as someone returned from the dead, and his plans from crossing the continent from east to west: "I hope to be on my way back from Swan River in two years' time. What I have in mind is to go up the Tropics, to make my way thence right across to the West coast of Australia in 22* or 23* of [South] latitude, and then to follow the coast southwards to Swan River. Sydney von 18th April 1846". Signed "Ludwig Leichhardt". (Translated in Aurousseau, "Letters of F. W. Ludwig Leichhardt", Hakluyt Society, 1968). This letter was published several times in Germany and later in translation in Sydney; it was publicly available in German from April 1847 when it appeared in part in Froriep's "Fortschritte der Geographie und Naturgeschichte" (Weimar). Condition: fair, some foxing with a brown mark across the top of the sheet. Fine and unrecorded German portrait of the famous explorer. After Leichhardt's triumphant return from his extraordinary eighteen-month expedition from the Darling Downs to the Gulf of Carpentaria, he became a popular figure in the press, and various portraits were made, perhaps the best known being the one by Charles Rodius. This portrait, which is not recorded in the standard references, does not resemble any of those known to have been made in Australia. There is no imprint, but the lithograph was evidently produced in Germany. It bears some resemblance to the portrait of Leichhardt in the Heimat Museum in Germany, and possibly could be based on that work.