CHEVALIER, NICHOLAS (1828-1902) was born at St Petersburg, his father (a Swiss) holding a post in the household of the Tsar. He studied art at Lausanne, architecture at Munich and lithography under Grunner. In 1852 he exhibited two water colours at the Royal Academy. He became naturalised and lived in England, obtaining some important commissions, assisting in the illustrations of Layard's Nineveh and designing the setting of the Koh-i-noor diamond. In 1853-54 he studied in Rome and in 1855 visited Australia to inquire into his father's investments. There he spent some years engaged in painting and in illustrated journalism. He introduced chromolithography for illustrating newspapers and drew some of the first cartoons for Melbourne Punch. During these years Chevalier turned to oil painting. In 1857 he exhibited at the exhibition of fine arts in Sydney. In the early sixties with his wife (Carrie, daughter of Sir David Wilkie, R.A.), he visited New Zealand, where he did much artistic work. Late in 1865 he commenced a tour of the lakes and mountains of Otago which yielded about 70 sketches, many of which he completed in later years in London and Paris. The provincial government of Canterbury voted him £200 as preliminary expenses of a sketching tour of the Southern Alps. Many of his New Zealand sketches he showed at the International Exhibition in Melbourne (1866-67). His widow afterwards presented a large collection of these to the New Zealand government. Others he completed in later years and showed in London and Paris (1868). He returned to Europe with the Duke of Edinburgh in the Galatea (1868) and some years later was commissioned to paint the picture of the Duke's wedding at St Petersburg. Settling at Porchester terrace, London, Chevalier in the next 20 years did many oils and water colours which he exhibited regularly in London and Paris. He was one of the promoters of the Melbourne Art Gallery, the first in Australia, and his picture The Buffalo Ranges, won the prize of £200 offered by the trustees for the best painting by a resident artist. Another of his works, A Race to Market, Tahiti (Royal Academy, 1880) is in the New South Wales Art Gallery, for which he acted as honorary purchaser for many years.

Owing to ill-health Chevalier did little work after 1886. He died at his home, Ashmore, Sydenham Hill, on 15 Mar 1902.

Otago Witness, 31 Mar 1866, 19 Jan 1867.

Reference: Volume 1, page 94

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