View at Normanville, a lithograph created after an original work by Colonel Light.

This artwork is very similar in style and technique to the illustrated watercolour version of a small pencil line sketch in Light's sketchbook PRG 1/4/176. That artwork is known as 'Mr Beares tents, Nepean Bay, Kangaroo Island', according to David Elder (Art of William Light . Adelaide: Corporation of the City of Adelaide in association with Wakefield Press, 1987). In the artwork 'Normanville', Light has employed a similar use of the small white tents in the foreground to give a very convincing contrast to the terrain and in particular, scale of the features of the surrounding landscape.

In addition to being a soldier, explorer and surveyor, Colonel William Light has been recognised as a skilled artist. During his travels as Surveyor-General of South Australia, he recorded scenes in the new colony with pencil and watercolour sketches. In January 1836 Light was appointed Surveyor-General of South Australia. In May, he sailed from England in the brig Rapid, and arrived in South Australia the following August. The South Australian Company had already sent some ships to Kangaroo Island to engage in whaling, and were carrying a limited number of settlers.

Normanville is near Yankalilla on the Fleurieu peninsula of South Australia.

Light, William, 1786-1839

Normanville (S. Aust)

Dutton, Geoffrey Colonel William Light: founder of a city Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1991

Elder, David Art of William Light Adelaide: Corporation of the City of Adelaide in association with Wakefield Press, 1987

Light, William William Light's brief journal and Australian diaries with an introduction and notes by David Elder, Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 1984

SA Memory, The Foundation of South Australia 1800-1851 Colonel William Light

SA Memory, The Foundation of South Australia 1800-1851 Mr. Beare's tents, Kangaroo Island

Holdfast Bay database South Australia; Colonel William Light

State Library SA South Australiana database : Light, William