View of the town of Parramatta from May’s Hillc 1840

It was rare for artist George Peacock to move away from his usual subject of Sydney Harbour, however this view looks down on Parramatta from Mays Hill. It is likely to have been painted during the brief period in 1839 when Peacock was being trained as a weather observer at the Parramatta Observatory. Old Government House, at the left, looks over Pitt and Hunter streets, and the centre of the town of Parramatta.

In the lower right corner, someone has erroneously signed the painting ‘Allport’ — another well-known colonial artist — presumably as a crude attempt to pass it off as a work by a more respected artist.