Charles William Andrewes (d.1869)

The artist, Charles William Andrews (or Andrewes), is probably to be identified with the 'Mr Andrews' who arrived in Sydney in 1853 on the steamship Cleopatra. He applied for the post of drawing master at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts where he may have been employed until April 1854. He advertised himself as a 'Portrait and Miniature Painter' in the Illustrated Sydney News but his work is only known from illustrations which began to appear in the local press and other popular printed ephemera. There are records of other commissions in Sydney until January 1857 when he disappears. He reappears with work for the press in Hong Kong and Manila in the later 1850s and early 1860s, and is known to have produced work for Ilustracion Filipina in Manila.

This, perhaps the largest of all of Andrews' known works, shows the Parade Ground on a weekend when it was opened for public use. The layout of the land suggests the work dates to the mid to late 1850s.