Edward Goodwyn Lewis (1827-91) was a British artist, most noted for his portraits. He was active in Britain from the 1850’s, and built up a good reputation for his portraiture.
He came to Australia for a few years in the 1880’s. His immediate family, three siblings, step-mother & his father, had migrated to Australia in the 1850’s, so he was ‘visiting family’ – but he also received a good number of commissions as a ‘celebrity visiting artist’.
Among them was the Melbourne Mayor, Cornelius Job Ham (mayor 1881-2) a magnificent large 3/4 length portrait now in the ‘City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection’. Their documentation states
“E. Goodwyn Lewis (1827-1891) may have been a travelling artist, perhaps touring the colonies. All that is known about him is that he exhibited in the Victorian Academy of Arts Annual Exhibition in 1884 and 1885. Many of the works exhibited were studies made on location in Egypt and the Middle East.”
He is well documented in the UK, where he can be seen in the British Museum and National Portrait Gallery.
He had spent ‘about 10 years’ travelling the Middle East, and it is interesting to note that his studies done while there were exhibited at the Victorian Academy of Arts Exhibition in 1884-5. This work may well be one of those studies.
Two other works from this period were sold at Bonhams in 2020:
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17048/lot/26/
Tuesday 11 March 1884 ‘The Herald’ reported:
An exhibition was mounted in Ballarat in 1884, ‘The Fine Arts Exhibition’ in the Town Hall. Lewis was a contributor with a number of oils & watercolours – and when the success of the exhibition led to the forming of a committee to create a permanent public art gallery in Ballarat, Lewis announced he would donate one of his most popular images, a portrait of Queen Victoria.