Title
Charlie Turner
1892
Artist
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Details
- Other Titles
- Aboriginal head (Charlie Turner)
Head of an Aboriginal
Aboriginal Head
Aboriginal head - Charlie Turner - Date
- 1892
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas on paperboard
- Dimensions
- 39.4 x 29.8 cm board; 53.9 x 44.4 x 6.5 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.l., brown oil "Tom Roberts./ 1892".
- Credit
- Purchased 1892
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 664
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Tom Roberts
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Tom Roberts made portraits of Aboriginal people as part of his broader project to record for posterity subjects that he regarded as being characteristic of Australian life. His focus here on the subject's eyes was unusual among 19th-century depictions of Indigenous people for its poignant evocation of an inner life - at the time there was a widespread belief that Australia's Indigenous people were a dying race.
This portrait may have been painted from studies Roberts made of Aboriginal people during his stay at Corowa in the Riverina in 1890-91. However, it is also possible that Roberts produced it during his 1892 visit to Cooktown, North Queensland, where he also sketched various local Indigenous people.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 9 exhibitions
Thirteenth Annual Exhibition of the Art Society of New South Wales (1892), Society Rooms, Union Chambers, Sydney, 1892 -
World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, Jackson Park, Chicago, , 01 May 1893–30 Oct 1893
Exhibition of Australian art in London (1898), Grafton Galleries, London, 02 Apr 1898–31 Jul 1898
Tom Roberts - Retrospective Exhibition, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Nov 1947–Jan 1948
Tom Roberts - Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria [Swanston Street], Melbourne, Nov 1947–Jan 1948
Tom Roberts - Retrospective Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Nov 1947–Jan 1948
Tom Roberts (1996-1997), Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 05 Oct 1996–17 Nov 1996
Tom Roberts (1996-1997), Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 30 Nov 1996–27 Jan 1997
Tom Roberts (1996-1997), National Gallery of Victoria [St Kilda Road], Melbourne, 12 Feb 1997–06 Apr 1997
Tom Roberts (1996-1997), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Apr 1997–01 Jun 1997
Tom Roberts (1996-1997), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 11 Jun 1997–27 Jul 1997
Tom Roberts Festival (2001), Inverell Art Gallery, Inverell, 27 Apr 2001–06 May 2001
Australian Impressionism, Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 31 Mar 2007–08 Jul 2007
Reframing Darwin: evolution and art in Australia (2009), The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Parkville, 12 Aug 2009–01 Nov 2009
Tom Roberts Retrospective, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 04 Dec 2015–28 Mar 2016
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Bibliography
Referenced in 36 publications
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Rex Butler (Editor), Radical revisionism: an anthology of writings on Australian art, 'Tom Roberts: "Where the sun never set"', pg. 163-174, Brisbane, 2005, 164.
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Wally Caruana and Jane Clark, The Cambridge companion to Australian Art, 'Buying and selling Australian art: a brief historical survey', pg. 290-306, Port Melbourne, 2011, 295, 366. fig.no. 21.4 (colour illus.), between pg. 268 and 269.
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Jane Clark, Golden summers: Heidelberg and beyond, 'Sydney Harbour', pg. 150-152, Melbourne, 1985, 153 (colour illus.).
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Robert Croll, Tom Roberts: father of Australian landscape painting, Melbourne, 1935, 208.
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Eva Czernis-Ryl, Australian gold & silver 1851-1900, Haymarket, 1995.
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Geoffrey Dutton, White on black: the Australian Aborigine portrayed in art, Melbourne, 1974, 59.
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Grafton Galleries, Exhibition of Australian art in London, London, 1898, 13. titled 'Aboriginal Head'; cat.no. 41
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Anne Grey, Tom Roberts, ‘Tom Roberts: La vita con brio’, pg. 11-30, Canberra, 2015, 17, 27, 46, 194 (colour illus.), 195, 349. cat.no. 61
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Jeanette Hoorn, Reframing Darwin: evolution and the arts in Australia, 'Tom Roberts' portrait of Charlie Turner and Darwin's expression of the emotions in man and animals', pg. 118-135, Carlton, 2009, 118 (colour illus.), 120 (colour illus.).
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Inverell Art Gallery, Tom Roberts Art Exhibition. Tom Roberts Festival 2001, Inverell, 2001, 2. cat.no. 2
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John M. Mackenzie, Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire, 'Art and the Empire', pg. 296-317, England, 1996, 308 (illus.).
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Alan McCulloch, The golden age of Australian painting - Impressionism and the Heidelberg school, Melbourne, 1969, 60 (colour illus.), 158.
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John McDonald, Art of Australia. Vol 1: Exploration to Federation, ‘Individual and national feeling’, pg. 545-610, Sydney, 2008, 576 (colour illus.), 579.
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Humphrey McQueen, Heads of the people: a portrait of Colonial Australia, 'An association of natives', pg. 97-115, Parkes, 2000, 96 (illus.), 111 (illus.), 149.
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1891, Sydney, 1891, Supplement. titled 'Aboriginal Head'
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1899, Sydney, 1899, 51. titled 'Aboriginal Head'; cat.no. 287
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1893, Sydney, 1893, 107. titled 'Aboriginal head'; cat.no. 373
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Tom Roberts exhibition, National Art Gallery of NSW: souvenir catalogue, Sydney, 1947, 11. titled 'Head of an Aboriginal'; cat.no. 16
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Royal Art Society of New South Wales, Art Society of New South Wales Spring Exhibition Catalogue, Sydney, 1892, 21. titled 'Aboriginal Head (Charlie Turner)'; cat.no. 78
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Dr Christina Slade and Glen Lewis, Critical communication, 'Theories and models of communication', pg. 1-25, Frenchs Forest, 2000, 2 (illus.).
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Bernard William Smith, A catalogue of Australian oil paintings in the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1875-1952, Sydney, 1953, 175. titled 'Head of an Aboriginal'
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Virginia Spate, Tom Roberts, 'Where The Sun Never Set. Tom Roberts and the British Empire', pg. 62, Adelaide, 1996, 64, 65 (colour illus.) 204 (illus.).
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Virginia Spate, Tom Roberts, Melbourne, 1978, 12, 104, 105 (illus.), 148. illus.no. 32
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Jill Sykes (Editor), Look, Sydney, Oct 2009, 52 (colour illus.). What's on section of the Society magazine.
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Daniel Thomas, Art Gallery of New South Wales Quarterly, 'Tom Roberts', pg. 466-487, Sydney, Jul 1969, 470 (illus.), 471.
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Nicholas Thomas, Possessions: indigenous art / colonial culture, 'Landscapes', pg. 50-93, London, 1999, 91 (illus.), 122, 294. illus.no. 45
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Helen Topliss, Seeing the first Australians, 'Tom Roberts' Aboriginal portraits', pg. 110-136, Sydney, 1985, 114, 115 (illus.), 116-117. plate no. 8.5
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Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856-1931: a catalogue raisonné. Volume 1 - Text, Melbourne, 1985, 123. cat.no. 183
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Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856-1931: a catalogue raisonné. Volume 2 - Plates, Melbourne, 1985, (illus.). plate no. 85
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Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856-1931: a catalogue raisonné. Volume 2 - Plates, Melbourne, 1985, (illus.). plate no. 85
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Angus Trumble, Australian Impressionism, 'Colony and Capital in Australian Impressionist Portraiture', pg. 181-187, Melbourne, 2007, 187, 336, 192 (colour illus.). cat.no. 10.10
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Natalie Wilson, Selling a nation: Australian artists at International Exhibitions [M.A., University of Sydney], 'Organisation of the New South Wales display in Chicago', pg. 18-45, Sydney, 2001, between 24-25 (colour illus.), 25, 36-38, 52. fig.no. 9
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World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893: Catalogue of the exhibits in the New South Wales Courts, 'Department K - fine arts, painting, sculpture, architecture and decoration. Grou, p 140, Sydney, 1893, 435. cat.no. 11; section 1178 as 'Aboriginal head'
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Editor Unknown (Editor), The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 02 Sep 1892, 2.
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PICTURES OF THE ART SOCIETY'S EXHIBITION, 1S92. — PURCHASED FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY, Sydney, 01 Oct 1892, 760 (illus.).
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Editor Unknown (Editor), Australasian art review, Sydney, 01 Aug 1899, 23.
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