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An image of (Bush landscape with waterfall and an aborigine stalking native animals, New South Wales) by John Skinner Prout
Alternate image of (Bush landscape with waterfall and an aborigine stalking native animals, New South Wales) by John Skinner Prout Alternate image of (Bush landscape with waterfall and an aborigine stalking native animals, New South Wales) by John Skinner Prout Alternate image of (Bush landscape with waterfall and an aborigine stalking native animals, New South Wales) by John Skinner Prout

John Skinner Prout

(England, Australia 19 Dec 1805–29 Sep 1876)

Title
(Bush landscape with waterfall and an aborigine stalking native animals, New South Wales)
Other titles:
(Cascade Falls, Hobart)
Cascade Falls, Tasmania
Year
(1860s)
Media category
Painting
Materials used
oil on canvas
Dimensions

70.5 x 91.4cm stretcher; 89.8 x 110.8 x 6.8cm frame

Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
Credit
Purchased under the terms of the Florence Turner Blake Bequest 1976
Accession number
208.1976
Location
19th c Australian art
Further information

This rare oil painting by John Skinner Prout depicts Willoughby Falls near Sydney. The luxuriantly forested landscape is filled with native plants and animals, appealing to an English Romantic taste for exotica. An idealised, Arcadian view, it is removed from the reality of European settlement at this time and its detrimental effects on the Indigenous population.

This painting was incorrectly recorded on several occasions as depicting a scene in Tasmania, where Prout worked between 1844 and 1848. A close study of the flora and fauna in the painting, however, substantiates that it is a NSW setting.

Bibliography (9)

Sotheby's Australia (Australia), Sotheby's Melbourne: The Foster's collection of Australian art, 23 May 2005, Armadale, 2005, 12. lot no. 3 is a related work, 'Aborigine stalking - Willoughby Falls, New South Wales', watercolour and gouache on paper, 66.5 x 90.5cm, circa 1945, reproduced on page 13.

Christie's, Australia Pty. Ltd. (Australia) (Author), Christie's Australia. Australian and International Painting. Melbourne 22 August 2000, South Yarra, 2000, 102. lot no. 121 is a related work, 'Willoughby Falls, New South Wales', oil on canvas, 89.0 x 70.5cm, circa 1842.

Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Domain, 2000, 18, 24 (colour illus.), 301.

'Arcadia: Nineteenth Century Australian Photography' by Robyn Donohue, pg. 22-23., Look Oct 1998, Oct 1998, 23.

Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Patricia McDonald (Editor), Haruo Arikawa (Japan) (Author), Chikashi Kitazaki (Japan) (Editor), Two hundred years of Australian painting: nature, people and art in the southern continent, Tokyo, 1992, 47 (colour illus.). cat.no. 9

Annabel Davie (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales Handbook, Domain, 1988, 15.

'An Aboriginal Arcadia', pg. 23-39., Images in opposition: Australian landscape painting 1801-1890 1985, 1985, 34, 173. titled 'Cascade Falls, Hobart'; plate no. 3 (colour) between pg. 34 and pg. 35

'John Skinner Prout: Cascade Falls, Hobart' by Ursula Prunster., Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection Series 2 1982, 1982, cover (colour illus.).

Peter Stanbury (Author), Australia's Animals: who discovered them?, Sydney, 1978, cover (colour illus.).

Exhibition history (8)

Art and Art Treasures, National Gallery of Victoria [Swanston Street], 1869–1869.

Samuel Elyard (1817-1910): Landscape painter and photographer, S.H. Ervin Gallery, 01 Jul 1982–08 Aug 1982.

John Skinner Prout in Australia (1986), Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 09 Nov 1986–01 Feb 1987.

Skinner Prout in Australia 1840-48, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 09 Dec 1986–01 Feb 1987.

Skinner Prout in Australia 1840-48, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 13 Mar 1987–18 Apr 1987.

Skinner Prout in Australia 1840-48, National Library of Australia, 04 May 1987–17 Jun 1987.

Two hundred years of Australian painting : Nature, people and art in the southern continent, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 28 Apr 1992–28 Jun 1992.

Two hundred years of Australian painting : Nature, people and art in the southern continent, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 14 Jul 1992–06 Sep 1992.