[1][2][3][4] Speaking at the 1995 Retrospectives exhibition of Emanuel's works, New South Wales Governor Rear-Admiral Peter Sinclair pointed to the artist's speciality in drawing and painting "scenes of yesteryear, and of buildings and locations that are national heritage items".
[5] He was an important Australian visual historian, "for almost seventy years" sketching and painting the "rapidly changing scenes of Australia from the outback to the inner suburbs of Sydney".
[5][7][8] In the postwar decades Emanuel worked primarily as a freelancer, creating "sketches in watercolour or ink depicting various aspects of Australia".
For example, for the centenary of Captain Cook's arrival in Botany Bay Emanuel himself published a limited edition of a collection of relevant black and white drawing in a volume Historic Sydney 1970; the 930/1000 copy is held in the State Library of NSW.
Cedric Emanuel married Bella "Billie" Oppenheim in 1938 and they had two children, Janese and rugby international David.