Gorus John (3 results)

Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 103 x 64 mm (mount), recto of mount imprinted J. T. Gorus Sydney; verso imprinted From the Studio of J. T. Gorus, Photographic Artist, 101 King Street, Sydney, New South Wales;both the print and mount are in excellent condition.

I. Albumen print photograph of a portrait painting, carte de visite format, 105 x 63 mm (mount); verso imprinted 'From the Studio of J. T. Gorus, Photographic Artist, 101 King Street, Sydney, New South Wales'; some light surface rubbing, otherwise in very good condition. This portrait of Parkes, "Father of Federation", was painted in Sydney soon after his arrival intheStrathfieldsaye on 25 July 1839, when Parkes was 24.John Gorus produced this carte de visite some 40 years later. Trove locates only one example of it(Stanton Library, North Sydney - incorrectly dated 1853). II. Four albumen print photographs in carte de visite format believed to be portraits of members of the Parkes family, taken between the late 1860s and around 1880 in studios in Birmingham (3) and Coventry (1); one print with damage to the edges. III. Albumen print photograph showing what is believed to be part of Stoneleigh Estate on the Coventry Canal, Warwickshire, birthplace of Sir Henry Parkes.1860s; photographer unidentified; pale foxing. Provenance: Parkes family, Warwickshire, by descent; UK trade.

Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 101 x 64 mm (mount), verso with imprint of 'John T. Gorus, Photographic Artist, 101 King St. Sydney'; the sitter has a touch of rose tinting on her lips; both the print and mount in very good condition. In addition to being a minor masterpiece of 1860s colonial portraiture, this carte de visite by John Gorus is a rare example from this early period of a painted backdrop depicting Sydney scenery. The view depicts Farm Cove from the east, with the distinctive turrets and castellations of Government House prominent, just to the left of the attractive young sitter's head and shoulders. Other Sydney photographers of the early 1860s who are known to have used painted panoramas of Sydney Harbour and its foreshore include Croft Bros., James Walker, and - most interestingly in this case - Charles Pickering, whose studio backdrop from around the same time is virtually identical to that used in the Gorus studio and would appear to have been painted by the same arist. (For an illustrated example of the Pickering backdrop, see Gilmour, Joanna.Carte-o-mania. Canberra : National Portrait Gallery, 2018, illustrated p. 119).