Visual arts

Atkinson, Robert, 1863-1896. (1889). Sheedy's Castle, Balmoral Beach [picture] / Robt. Atkinson. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135211215

Nathaniel Plimer, Portrait Miniature of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Brisbane, c.1800-1810, nla.obj-3180223104

George French Angas (artist) and James William Giles (lithographer), The River Murray, near Lake Alexandrina, 1847, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135637342

Loui Seselja, Bas relief over the entrance doors of the National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2004, nla.obj-131049918

Alice Kettle (b.1961), Australian Landscapes I–IV 2000 ca.1998 ; 4 machine-embroidered tapestries, Main Reading Room

John Young, John Dicks, Milena Paplinska, Cheryl Thornton (weavers), Finding Kenneth Myer 2011, wool and cotton; 230 x 302cm, Special Collections Reading Room

Harold Cazneaux's first camera, 1904, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-141166704
Harold Cazneaux (1878–1953) was perhaps Australia's best-known photographer of the early twentieth century. He purchased this camera in 1904, shortly after moving from Adelaide to Sydney, and made photographs of Sydney's streets and waterways.
In 1909 he became the first Australian photographer to exhibit his works in a solo show.
Cazneaux was a master of the pictorialist style of photography, using soft focus to capture scenes that were - and remain - familiar to many Australians in a new light. He was able to find a timeless, extraordinary beauty in the everyday.