John Marquett Blaxland was the eldest son of John Blaxland and Harriott de Marquett, and a nephew of the explorer Gregory Blaxland. John Marquett was keen to expand his family’s cattle holdings and in 1821 he undertook the first cattle drive into the Hunter Valley. From 1817 to 1824, he conducted a series of explorations and found a route from Windsor to the Hunter River. His family was granted further landholdings near Cessnock in New South Wales and Blaxland Arm is named after him.

This portrait was made shortly before his sudden death in the ‘39th year of his age’ in 1840.