Burn’s watercolour landscapes “demonstrate his success in capturing the changing effects of light and atmosphere as well as incorporating interesting contemporary details.” (View From Richmond to South Yarra Hill) has a beautiful luminous quality, the incidental elements of grazing cattle, children playing and boats on the river provoking an atmosphere of reminiscence, heightened by the hazy softness of the work, and providing a narrative element against the details of the landscape.

Burn’s many views of Melbourne are of appeal not only for aesthetic reasons, but also for the historical interest they provide in capturing well-known areas, particularly the evident growth of housing in the background.

(View From Richmond to South Yarra Hill), 1868, together with its companion piece, South Yarra Hill in the La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria, reflect the development around the Yarra embankments towards the punt which serviced the South Yarra area.

Reynolds, Patricia. Henry Burn, The Dictionary of Australian Artists, Joan Kerr (ed), Melbourne, 1992; pp. 115-6