Grey wash on paper, laid on grey card with black lined borders and inscribed by the artist ‘Caves of Dionysius, Syracuse’

21 by 14.3 cm.

Provenance: By descent form the artist descent to 2021. This was one of the works given to his son Edwin, who remained in Europe when William Swainson left for New Zealand.

There has been much debate over the years about how this cave came into being. Most have argued that it was excavated either as a source of limestone or as a reservoir for water. Others have raised the possibility that the nature of the rock would have allowed this cavity for form naturally through the erosion of the water trickling down its fissures. In this depiction, we see men apparently surveying the site.

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