Title
A view in southern Australia with Aboriginal people spearing kangaroos
1836
Artist
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Details
- Other Titles
- Entrance of Port Lincoln taken from behind Memory Cove, South Australia (A view in South Australia)
A view in southern Australia with Aboriginals spearing kangaroos - Date
- 1836
- Media category
- Watercolour
- Materials used
- watercolour, pencil, scraping out
- Dimensions
- 37.6 x 54.2 cm sheet; 56.9 x 72.0 x 2.5 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r. corner, brown watercolour "Tho Heaphy/ 1836".
- Credit
- Purchased 1968
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- WA13.1968
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Thomas Heaphy Junior
Works in the collection
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About
The son of a founding member (and first president) of the Society of British Artists, Thomas Heaphy junior based this watercolour on William Westall's painting 'Entrance of Port Lincoln taken from behind Memory Cove, February 1802' (1809-12), now in the British Ministry of Defence art collection, London (see Elisabeth Findlay 'Arcadian quest: William Westall's Australian sketches', Canberra, National Library of Australia, 1998, pg. 22), or the engraving after it by John Pye, published in London in 1814. There is no known connection between Westall and Heaphy junior, or with Pye, but it was common practice for artists then (as now), to copy or adapt the work of other artists. William Westall (1781-1850) travelled with Matthew Flinders on his 1801-03 voyage to circumnavigate Australia as the expedition artist, and his resulting drawings and paintings are among the most important of early nineteenth century Australia (a substantial number are in the National Library, Canberra). His painting 'Entrance of Port Lincoln' was in fact a composite of two separate drawings he made of the subject.
The engravings by Pye after Westall were published as 'Voyage to Terra Australis' in 1814. The title of this watercolour is based on an inscription on an old backing sheet 'Fancy view of S Australia by Thomas Heaphy the younger' and its title at auction in 1968.
excerpt from Hendrik Kolenberg, Anne Ryan and Patricia James, '19th century Australian watercolours, drawings & pastels in the Gallery's collection', Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2005
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Exhibition history
Shown in 4 exhibitions
James R. Lawson auction, 27 November 1968, James R. Lawson Pty Ltd, Sydney, 27 Nov 1968 -
Australian images: Prints, drawings and watercolours from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Dec 1979–28 Jan 1980
Nineteenth century Australian watercolours from the collection (1991), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 13 Apr 1991–07 Jul 1991
19th century Australian watercolours, drawings & pastels, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Apr 2005–24 Jul 2005
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Bibliography
Referenced in 3 publications
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Jane de Teliga, Australian images: Prints, drawings and watercolours from the collection, Sydney, 1979, 6.
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Hendrik Kolenberg, 19th century Australian watercolours, drawing and pastels from the Gallery's collection, 'Introduction', pg. 6-16, Sydney, 2005, 9, 26, 27 (colour illus.).
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Hendrik Kolenberg., Nineteenth century Australian watercolours from the collection, 'Introduction', Sydney, 1991. not paginated, cat.no. 30
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