Photograph of an oil painting of Strath Creek Falls, near Broadford, Victoria, circa 1880.

Albumen print photograph of an oil painting, cabinet card format, 165 x 107 mm, recto of mount imprinted ‘Rider & Co., Williamstown’; verso with contemporary inscription in ink ‘Strath Creek Falls, Paintted [sic] By C. Brown / Near Broadford’; in fine condition.

The picturesque Strath Creek Falls, which are located between Broadford and Yea, northeast of Melbourne, have inspired paintings by numerous artists since the colonial era, most notably Eugene von Guérard (Waterfall, Strath Creek, 1862, now in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales), Fred Williams and William Delafield Cook.

It is not known whether this extremely competent painting of the Falls photographed around 1880 by Andrew Rider has survived. We have been unable to fully identify the artist ‘C. Brown’, who is not listed in Kerr (Dictionary of Australian artists).