South Illustrated Colonial painting in the Land of Promise

EDUCATION RESOURCE

Art Gallery of North Terrace artgallery.sa.gov.au South Australia Illustrated Introduction

outh Australia was unlike the other The exhibition, and selected works of art included Australian settlements, having been in this Education Resource, connects to the Australian planned in London as a province of Great Curriculum: history by engagement with and consideration Britain, not as a penal colony. It was of the following: promoted to potential immigrants as ‘the land of promise’. • What life was like for the Aboriginal people before the GeorgeS French Angas’s major promotional publication arrival of Europeans South Australia Illustrated featured a series of his sketches • Why Europeans settled in South Australia and watercolours and showed the unfamiliar but strangely • The nature and consequence of contact between beautiful environment. It was released in London from Aboriginal people and settlers 1846 and continued to ‘sell’ the colony to those looking • How the South Australian colony developed over time, for adventure and prosperity. and how it changed the environment. The prints, drawings, watercolours and oil paintings In association with South Australia Illustrated: colonial displayed in this exhibition, which has been curated by painting in the Land of Promise are the exhibitions Bounty: Jane Hylton, provide a colonial narrative that covers nineteenth-century South Australian gold and silver, and South the exploration of South Australia, its settlement and Australia Illustrated: from the street. development, and colonial life. Works by ‘settler artists’ Bounty, curated by Robert Reason, provides an insight , Martha Berkeley and J.M. Skipper, among into aspects of nineteenth-century colonial society through others, give impressions of the landscape of the 1830s and decorative art and jewellery, including church silver, also show the interactions between the Indigenous people presentation objects for important events, and ceremonial and settlers. These are followed by S.T. Gill’s lively street items. The work of South Australia’s early goldsmiths and scenes, James Shaw’s recordings of colonial ‘events’, and silversmiths, Julius Schomburgk and Henry Steiner, is Charles Hill’s portraits and places. Alexander Schramm, featured. painting in the 1850s, focuses on the Aboriginal people of South Australia Illustrated: from the street, curated by Lisa the Adelaide Plains, whose way of life was greatly disrupted Slade, shows the work of contemporary South Australian by the arrival of white settlers. artists, including Ali Baker, James Dodd and Peter Drew, The arrival of so many talented artists, some of them as they respond to the Art Gallery of South Australia’s professional artists, in one place, meant that the colony of colonial art collection. Applying the visual language of the South Australia was home to a dynamic visual arts scene. streets through the use of paste-ups, stencilling and aerosol Later in the century, many artists, including Rosa Fiveash, paining, their work is displayed both in the Gallery and on demonstrated the developing sophistication of life and art the streets of Adelaide. in the colony through their genre paintings. A William Woolnoth

William Woolnoth, engraver, Britain, active 1806-1836, after William Westall, Britain/Australia, 1781–1850, View of the north side of from Views of Australian scenery, c.1814, London; published by G. & W. Nicol, London, 1814, etching, engraving on paper, 16.0 x 23.0 cm (image); South Australian Government Grant 1969. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

otential settlers from England and After Westall returned to England some of his paintings Europe relied, for information about were copied by an engraver, Mr William Woolnoth. This South Australia, on handmade maps and was a usual practice in the publishing industry, at a time pictures, as well as journals produced before photography was widely used. Engravings of as a result of scientific expeditions Westall’s paintings were then printed in illustrated books undertakenP by navigators such as Captain Matthew describing journeys of exploration. Flinders and Captain James Cook. The professional artists This black line engraving by Woolnoth has the same who accompanied the expeditions were employed to name as Westall’s original painting of Kangaroo Island. It record these newly discovered lands and places. was included in a picture book publicising new lands in Artist William Westall was just nineteen years old when, South Australia, called Views of Australian scenery, printed in in the early 1880s, he accompanied Flinders on his journey London in 1814. from England to map the coasts of Australia. Westall’s job was to depict Australian lands for the expedition’s sponsors, Focus questions and activities who were also often future settlers. • Why is this work of art an important visual record? On Kangaroo Island Westall went ashore from the • Explain why the coastline was the landscape feature moored Investigator, taking with him portable art materials, most often recorded by early navigators and exploration including pencil and charcoal. He made observational artists. drawings of new plants, animals and coastal views. Back • Find another work in this exhibition by Westall. on board he would complete watercolour or oil paintings Consider the locations selected and the detail of the from these drawings. Westall was a keen observer, his line scene recorded. How might this view of Australian work showing great sensitivity, particularly his animal scenery have supported immigration to the new drawings. colony? This ‘view’ gives the impression of a land of abundance • List the ways in which features of newly discovered and plenty, a tranquil land: seals are sunning themselves; Australian lands were recorded in the early 1880s. If kangaroos and emus are grazing. The background hills are you were an explorer today, what different methods densely covered with natural vegetation. would you be able to use to record your discoveries? B William Light

olonel William Light was South Australia’s first surveyor-general. He was fifty years old when he arrived in South Australia in 1836. He became known for his hard work and for hisC considerable artistic talent. Given his surveying role, Light had to quickly understand the natural environment. Because the settlement had to sustain domestic, farming and agricultural uses, easy access to fresh water and arable land was necessary. The settlement also had to be in a location large enough to support its growth into a city, and it had to be close to a harbour. During his short time as surveyor-general, Light came under enormous pressure and received unfair criticism from the distant bureaucrats in London – as well as many local people in South Australia – over his choice of the site for the settlement. But interestingly, Light always looked on the design of Adelaide from the viewpoint of an immigrant, as well as of the surveyor-general. He always intended to make his home in Adelaide and wanted to leave his mark on the place he surveyed. It is thanks to Light that Adelaide has wide streets, a belt of surrounding parklands, and five city squares. As an artist as well as a surveyor and planner, Light William Light, 1786–1839, Self portrait, c.1839, Adelaide, oil on canvas, combined his knowledge of cartography, topography, 58.1 x 42.2 cm; Gift of G.G. Mayo on behalf of his father, the late George surveying, and art to produce many sketches and paintings Mayo, FRCS 1905. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide that brought to life the early years of the settlement. Unfortunately, Light’s residence, a small hut, caught fire Focus questions and activities in January 1839, and many of his works of art, as well as official and private papers, were destroyed. • The canvas seems to have been re-used. What clue is This painting is an unfinished self-portrait. Art there for this? historians think it was begun by Light in the last year of his life. The feverish look suggested by the rosy cheeks may • If you could interview William Light, what be because Light was ill at the time. The painting gives the questions would you ask him about his surveying impression of being unfinished. of the settlement site and his designs for the city of Almost two hundred years after the portrait was made, Adelaide? Research the controversy regarding Light’s contemporary South Australian artist Peter Drew has taken selection of the site for Adelaide. the enigmatic self portrait of Light and created his own • Who were Adelaide’s five squares named after? What version of the portrait using stencilling and aerosol. Drew did these people contribute to the development of has also invited twelve other South Australian artists (Jake Adelaide? Bresanello, James Cochran, Sam Evans, Kate Gagliardi, • Paint a self-portrait in colonial fashion. Jake Holmes, Madeline Reece, Garry Seaman, Matthew • Now try making a self-portrait using a street art Stuckey, Joel Van Der Knaap, Dan Withey and Kerri Ann styling. Wright) to create their own versions of the portrait in their signature styles. During the project these portraits Learn more about immigration from the Maritime will be set free on the streets of Adelaide for members of Museum link: www.history.sa.gov.au/maritime/edu/ the public to collect. docs/southwardbound.pdf C Martha Berkeley

Martha Berkeley, 1813–1899, Mount Lofty from The Terrace, Adelaide, c.1840, Adelaide, watercolour on paper, 34.5 x 45.0 cm; South Australian Government Grant 1935. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

artha Berkeley and her husband, Charles, Focus questions and activities arrived in South Australia in February 1837. Martha was an artist and Charles was a police officer. They spent the first • Find out more about the traditional eight months of life in Adelaide living in a tent on the and gathering practices of the Kaurna people of M Mikawomma (the Kaurna name for the Adelaide banks of the River Torrens. As a busy and proficient artist, Martha recorded the colony’s development over time. Plains). Mount Lofty from The Terrace, Adelaide, was painted four years after South Australia had been proclaimed a colony. • Find East Terrace on Google Earth. Look at the Berkeley does not tell us which terrace she has painted urban development that has occurred between East from, but the twin peaks of Mount Lofty and Mount Terrace and Mount Lofty since 1840. Bonython in the background indicate that it is probably East Terrace. There is no evidence of settler development, except for the dirt track (The Terrace) in the foreground. A settler walks beside his bullock dray on this track, and Aboriginal people seem to be engaged in traditional hunting and gathering activity, suggesting the coexistence of settler and Indigenous groups in the area. D Charles Hill

Charles Hill, 1824–1915, The Proclamation of South Australia 1836, c.1856–76, Adelaide, oil on canvas, 133.3 x 274.3 cm; Morgan Thomas Bequest Fund 1936. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

harles Hill took twenty years to complete Focus questions and activities this famous painting, The Proclamation of • Imagine you are one of the people on top of the old South Australia 1836. In the painting a gum tree. Describe what you see and hear. flag is about to be raised, as the Colonial Secretary, Robert Gouger, proclaims South Australia to be • Collect a copy of the key to the reading of the a colonyC of Great Britain. Settlers and officials, many of Proclamation. Find the Governor and Mrs Hindmarsh, whom would have arrived on the first boats to land earlier the Colonial Secretary, and the artist J.M. Skipper. that year at , observe the ceremony. Hill has also included several small groups of Kaurna people, who • Notice that on this key the Kaurna people are labelled watch from a distance. Interestingly, Hill was not present at ‘Natives’. Discuss in class how the words used to the Proclamation, which took place some years before he describe the Indigenous inhabitants of Australia have migrated to South Australia. changed since this time. Hill could imagine how the scene had looked, and he cleverly also included some information from real life. He • Later, source the words of the Proclamation. What took his art materials to Holdfast Bay shore from his home reference was made in this document to the Indigenous in the city and drew the site in accurate detail. For many people? of the two hundred people in the crowd, Hill created mini portraits of real people who were actually there. But, strangely, he included several dignitaries who were not present at the ceremony. Colonel William Light is visible, for example, but we know he was elsewhere at the time. The old curved gum tree in the background is the site of the yearly celebrations of Proclamation Day, held on 28 December. E J.M. Skipper

J.M. Skipper, 1815–1883, Holdfast Bay, South Australia 1836, 1836, Holdfast Bay, South Australia, watercolour on paper, 16.0 x 24.0 cm; Morgan Thomas Bequest Fund 1942. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

ames Skipper came to South Australia to Focus questions and activities start a new adventure – which began on board the ship Africaine, where he met • Describe the activities taking place in Skipper’s his future wife! He arrived in the colony painting. in November 1836. He came with the understanding that J • Why were bullocks the preferred animal for making works of art was an important aspect of colonial life. Skipper became well respected as an artist because of transporting goods? his accurate representations of the local scenery and the features of colonial settlement. • Find William Light’s painting of the same site. In this painting Skipper records activity he observed in Compare and contrast the two works. the first few days after landing at Holdfast Bay. At this time there was no easy road between Holdfast Bay and the site • Later, research why Holdfast Bay was chosen as a for Adelaide, so stores and supplies had to be carried or put landing site, and why it was so named. onto drays pulled by bullocks. The movement of supplies would have been difficult, given the extensive sandhills around the site at the mouth of the Patawalonga. At the centre of the painting, on top of a tall flagpole, flies the Royal Ensign, symbolising the arrival of the English. The flag flies against a large open sky, showing the openness of the landscape accommodating this settlement. Notice the grid lines Skipper has drawn onto the page. This was a common practice if the artist intended to make an oil painting from a sketch. F S.T. Gill

S.T. Gill, 1818–1880, Horticultural Society Show, Adelaide, 1843, Adelaide, watercolour on paper, 20.8 x 30.8 cm; Gift of M.J.M. Carter AO through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2004. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

hen Gill arrived in the colony there Focus questions and activities was already a thriving art scene, and as an artist, he was keen to capture • What has the Horticultural Society Show, shown the bustling lifestyle of the colony and here, become today? Describe how it has changed. produce images that celebrated its prosperity. By the mid- • This event in 1843 was not only an opportunity for 1840sW he was a familiar figure around Adelaide town, and producers and craftsmen to display their produce; his presence, with his sketch book in hand, was expected it was also a social occasion for the colonists. Find at all the important events in the colony. out what other social occasions colonists might have Gill’s original images were exhibited in England as part enjoyed. of a promotional lecture tour organised by James Allen, a • Write about a show, or farmers’/produce market newspaper editor from Adelaide. The purpose of Allen’s you may have visited. Discuss in class how shows or tour was to promote immigration to the new colony, and markets have developed over 150 years. Gill’s lively recordings of colonial life would have helped Allen’s cause. Allen selected thirty-six works by Gill to • Learn more about Aboriginal plant use on the highlight the economic wealth of the copper mines of Adelaide Botanic Garden Education Service link: Kapunda and Burra and to boast about the increasing http://www.openaccess.edu.au/outreach/oes/ prosperity of the settlement. botanic/discov.htm# The colony’s first produce show was held in the parklands near North Terrace. Gill’s highly detailed watercolour shows marquees and tents set up under tall sheltering gums, and a crowd, including settlers and Kaurna people, gathering to view the displays of locally produced fruit and vegetables. Also on display would have been agricultural implements and samples of leather goods produced by the colonists. G S.T. Gill

S.T. Gill, 1818–1880, Port Adelaide looking north along Commercial Road, 1847, Adelaide, watercolour on paper, 20.3 x 32.0 cm; Morgan Thomas Bequest Fund 1923. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

ill arrived in the colony with his family small groups of people are interacting. A sailor leans on a in December 1839, living first in wooden barrel and chats with an Aboriginal family. On Gawler Place, from where he advertised the other side of the slipway, another family, perhaps new his artistic services to the colonists of immigrants, waves to people passing by in a horse and Adelaide.G His intention was to earn his living solely as an buggy. Some of these people might be residents of the artist by painting ‘correct likenesses’ of the colonists, their Port area; some may have come to collect goods arriving families, animals and properties. Gill was also interested in from overseas. The buildings shown would have been used a vast array of subjects such as street scenes, the activity for storage – wool or wheat – and as business offices and occurring at Port Adelaide, public events and mining shops. Many of the old colonial buildings can still be seen activities. at Port Adelaide today. The watercolour Port Adelaide looking north along Commercial Road captures all the hustle and bustle of the busy port. The tall masts of the sailing ships which arrived Focus questions and activities regularly from overseas can be seen in the background. • What do you think the slipway in the middle of Gill’s These ships were the lifeline of the colony, bringing painting was used for? Are slipways still in use today? the various goods the settlers depended on; they then transported the colony’s agricultural and mining products • What would the purpose of the wooden rowing back to England. boats have been? A slipway fills the centre of the painting. A man with • Is this port as important today as it was in colonial a long stick in his hand may be searching for marooned times? Discuss your answer in class. fish in a puddle left by the falling tide. Around the slipway H S.T. Gill

S.T. Gill, 1818–1880, Sturt’s Overland Expedition leaving Adelaide, 10th August, 1844, 1844–45, Adelaide, watercolour on paper, 41.3 x 72.0 cm; South Australian Government Grant 1939. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

amuel Thomas Gill was one of the most It was a large expedition: Sturt set off with sixteen men, important observers and painters of life eleven horses, three hundred sheep, thirty-two bullocks, in colonial Adelaide. He never lost an six dogs, and an assortment of carts and wagons! opportunity to be present at, and record, specialS events. One of these was the departure on 10 August Focus questions and activities 1844 of Captain Charles Sturt’s overland expedition. • Find J.M. Crossland’s portrait of Captain Charles Sturt Sturt had been resident in Adelaide since 1839, (c.1853) in the exhibition. working in a government position. He made known to the people of Adelaide that he intended to organise • Later, research Sturt’s journey. Was the expedition a an expedition to ‘settle the debate’ as to whether there success? Present information to support your answer. was a sea in the middle of the continent. He had already explored the interior of South Australia, and in London a • Imagine you have been employed as the artist to record of these earlier explorations, Two expeditions into accompany the expedition and to record the landscape. the interior of South Australia, had been published. Create an image of a place you saw while travelling The expedition of 1844 departed from the corner of overland with Sturt. Currie and King William streets, and because a holiday had been declared in honour of the occasion, a large number • We often take for granted the names of streets and of onlookers had gathered. Gill’s painting shows the crowd places where we live, or visit. Select a well-known and many horses and riders, but it’s difficult to determine street name in Adelaide, and find out what, or who, is who was part of the actual expedition group. Several behind the name. important people were present, including the governor of the time, Sir , and also John Morphett, who is remembered for his contribution to horse racing in South Australia. (Morphettville Racecourse is named after him.) It is clear from the painting that many people dressed in their finest clothes – women in gowns and bonnets, men in formal suits and top hats, and some in uniform – to farewell the expedition. I S.T. Gill

S. T. Gill, 1818–1880, Captain Davison’s house ‘Blakiston’ near Mount Barker, 1848, Adelaide, watercolour on paper, 21.3 x 33.8 cm; South Australian Government Grant 1979. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

andscape paintings and ‘portraits’ of Focus questions and activities houses were the chief means by which S.T. Gill earned a living. He was • Imagine you are Captain Davison. Describe what the described by fellow artist F.R. Nixon as land was like on arrival near Mount Barker. Make a ‘the Colony’s pre-eminent landscape artist’. list of the tasks you would have had to undertake to LBy 1848, when this painting was created, the colony of establish your farm. South Australia was only twelve years old, but already large • This painting shows evidence of the land-clearing areas of land as far away as Mount Barker had been fenced practices of the early settlers. What were some of and cultivated by settlers. The property of master mariner the consequences of these practices on the land, the Captain William Davison was typical of those owned by native flora and fauna, and the Aboriginal people? the growing middle class in this convict-free colony. In this painting we see a two-storey house in the distance, with smaller buildings and sheds alongside. Much of the land has been cleared, but some gums have been left near the entrance gate and on the crest of the hill. Cattle can be seen grazing, while a bullock and a farmer plough the land. A settler leans on the fence in the foreground, talking with an Aboriginal family. The painting of his house and property would have given Captain Davison the opportunity to boast to his family back in England about his prosperity in the new colony. J G.F. Angas

G.F. Angas,1822–1886, Rapid Bay, 1844, Adelaide, watercolour and gouache on paper, 25.7 x 35.5 cm; On permanent loan from the National Trust of South Australia. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

eorge French Angas arrived in South Focus questions and activities Australia in January 1844. His father • Describe the objects you can see near the campsite. was chairman of the company which How might the shelter have been made? had been set up to manage the commercial settlement of South Australia. Angas was a • What are your impressions of this painting as a record prolificG sketcher, and he began sketching within days of of Aboriginal life at the time? What evidence can arriving. He travelled to many parts of South Australia not you find that shows that the Aboriginal people in the usually visited, as illustrated by the lithographs of his work painting have had contact with the settlers? on the wall at the beginning of this exhibition. In Rapid Bay Angas has given a view of Aboriginal life • This painting gives a view of Rapid Bay before settler at the time of early contact. A shelter, protected by shrubs, development of the area. Using any medium, create can be seen clearly, and a fire nearby is perhaps cooking a contrasting work that represents Rapid Bay as it is recently caught fish. The group of Aboriginal people today. Find Rapid Bay on Google Earth to view the includes a number of generations. The Kaurna people development of the town of Yankalilla. called this place ‘Patparno’; the white settlers named it www.maplandia.com/australia/south-australia/ after the ship on which William Light arrived: the Rapid. yankalilla/rapid-bay/rapid-bay-google-earth. The painting draws the viewer’s gaze in a number of html#map directions: to the group by the water, to the campsite, and to the sheltering cliffs behind. A sense of serenity is reinforced in the colours and tones the artist has used. K Julius Schomburgk

ulius Schomburgk, a goldsmith and silversmith, emigrated from Prussia in 1850, following his older brothers Richard and Otto, who were scientists, to South Australia. In JSouth Australia in the nineteenth century the trade of silversmithing/goldsmithing was dominated by migrants who had come from Germany and surrounding countries. They produced some of the finest silver and gold work in colonial Australia. Creating presentation and testimonial pieces was an important part of their work. Such pieces were often of elaborate design and sometimes included representations of local events, flora and fauna, and Indigenous people. The Presentation Cup, made of silver and silver gilt, was completed in October 1861. It was one of the last pieces independently made by Schomburgk before he joined the jeweller J.M. Wendt in Rundle Street, Adelaide. On the elaborate top are kangaroos and various birds, and a grass tree plant. At the base, beneath the tree fern, are emus, a lizard, and Aboriginal figures in traditional clothing and holding spears. Centrally placed on each side of the cup are pieces of silver-encased malachite, heavily decorated with vine leaves and grapes, ears of wheat and grazing sheep, symbolising the development of agriculture in the colony. Schomburgk was an extremely talented craftsman and designer, but perhaps not such a good businessman, since he met with considerable hardship in his later years.

Julius Schomburgk, Australia, 1819–1893, Presentation cup, 1861, Adelaide, silver, silver gilt, malachite, 57.0 cm, 14.0 cm (diam); J.C. Earl Bequest Fund 2011. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide L Henry Steiner

his beautiful ewer-shaped Cup is made of twenty-carat gold and it is likely that Steiner used locally mined gold, which was often around twenty carats in refinement. This gold might have come fromT the Jupiter Creek mine in the , or from mines around Birdwood or in the Barossa Valley. It is a fine example of a colonial goldsmith’s work, in what is termed neoclassical style, meaning that it resembles designs used in ancient Greece. The body of the Cup is finely engraved with grape vines and other decorative designs. The handle is curved and elaborately scrolled. The base is also elaborately decorated. The Cup has been described as ‘antique’ in shape, and at the time comparisons were made in the Adelaide newspapers with similar gold objects found at archaeological digs at Troy and Mycenae. The engraving on the body of the Cup reads: Adelaide Hunt Club Cup, 1870. Won by R. Barr-Smith’s Unknown. There is a bit of mystery to the Cup, given that it was not made until 1878, several years after the race was held in the East Parklands, on 15 October 1870. The delay may have been because the colony at the time was suffering an economic depression, with accompanying mass unemployment and civil unrest. People had also begun to leave rural areas. The Adelaide Hunt Club, patronised by the wealthy upper level of society, was itself in financial difficulties. It was decided that the race meeting would go ahead, but no trophy was presented to the winner. It is likely that Barr Smith himself commissioned Steiner to make the Cup as a memento of his win. Focus questions and activities

• Examine the range of works by goldsmiths/ silversmiths/jewellers in the Bounty exhibition. In what ways have these artists/artisans contributed to our understanding of life in the early days of the colony? • Why have silver and gold been considered precious and desirable metals over the centuries? Why do jewellers like to work with these metals?

• Design a cup to be presented for an event at your H. Steiner, c.1860–1884, Adelaide Hunt Club Cup 1870, c.1878, Adelaide, school. What motifs/engravings would you choose to gold, 31.5 x 12.5 x 15.8 cm; Purchased with the assistance of the Australian decorate this cup, and why? Government through the National Cultural Heritage Account assisted by the J.C. Earl Bequest Fund and the Lillemor Andersen Bequest Fund 2008 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

M Alexander Schramm

Alexander Schramm, 1813–1864, Adelaide, a tribe of natives on the banks on the River Torrens, 1850, Adelaide, oil on canvas, 86.7 x 130.2 cm; Purchased 2005. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

lexander Schramm’s large activity-filled Schramm was known for his skill and sensitivity in painting of an encampment of Kaurna representing Aboriginal people. He connected with the people, possibly including Aboriginal Kaurna people soon after he arrived in 1849. Because he people from other areas, by the River felt great empathy for their situation, he was welcomed in Torrens east of Adelaide (where the suburbs of Kensington their campsites. He had some freedom to move amongst andA Marryatville are now) was one of the largest painted in them, indicating that he was known and trusted. the colony at that time. Nearly eighty Aboriginal people, Focus questions and activities over fifty dogs and puppies, as well as two settlers with horses (one man dismounted), are shown in a crowded • Observe the painting closely. List the items used by scene. the Aboriginal people that indicate contact with The Indigenous people were from many different settlers. areas and had retreated to the Adelaide Plains as they had • Research why so many Aboriginal people were nowhere else to go following the expansion of settlers’ located in this area. farms and townships. They had become displaced people. Groups can be seen in the foreground and background • Imagine you are a child in this painting. Describe engaged in various activities. Some Aboriginal people your life on the Adelaide Plains. can be seen throwing spears, others are making nets and • Later, visit the South Australian Museum’s Aboriginal some are reclining in their wurleys. One Aboriginal man Cultures Gallery to view Aboriginal artefacts and is portrayed half-way up the gum tree and is chopping to learn more about Aboriginal culture, events and branches for firewood. Children are playing, and dogs stories. roam between the shelters. N Charles Hill

Charles Hill, 1824–1915, The artist and his family, late 1860s, Adelaide, oil on canvas, 47.7 x 66.0 cm; Gift of Mrs I. Rusk 1966. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

his painting shows the Hill family in Hill painted his family with obvious affection, and this an outdoor garden setting. The artist portrait is intimate and relaxed. He used a more formal Charles Hill is relaxing with his wife style when painting scenes or places or works for public and his eight children. Hill had recently exhibition. moved with his family from Pulteney Street to live on SouthT Terrace. In the centre of the painting we can see the Adelaide Hills in the distance. Focus questions and activities Hill had been in South Australia for twelve years when • Describe the meal the family are about to have from he painted this work. His eldest daughter, Henrietta, in the clues you can see here. Think about where the her mid-teens, is serving food at the family table. She was food would have come from, or how it would have twelve months old when she arrived with her parents in been made. the new town of Adelaide. Henrietta is the small child featured in another of Hill’s paintings, The First Lesson. • What differences might there have been in terms of a In this portrait of his family Hill has added a little ‘family’ meal consumed by Indigenous people at this mystery by hiding his face; it is the only face we cannot see time? in this family group. Although the family seem formally dressed, the scene is a casual one. Gardening tools are • Create a group portrait of your family relaxing stacked on the left; a red watering can and a bucket are on together. Include a familiar setting and other clues the other side. Three children have left the table – one is about your family life. occupied with a book; another is playing with a pet; the third is hugging, and perhaps whispering to, her father. O Charles Hill

Charles Hill, 1824–1915, Georgetown, 1877, Adelaide, oil on canvas, 96.5 x 139.0 cm; Mrs Mary Overton Gift Fund 1998. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

oon after the Proclamation of South There has been some development in the town. Hill Australia in 1836, settlers began to shows a major technological innovation, the electric move away from Adelaide to establish telegraph, which reached South Australia in 1858. Notice farms in country areas. Georgetown wires which run from the Telegraph Office was established in the mid-north, near on the left-hand side of the street, to the other side. A Gladstone,S about 175 kilometres north of Adelaide. This few years later, in 1872, the Overland Telegraph Line was was thought to be good country for growing wheat. completed. This crossed the continent, linking Melbourne Artist Charles Hill packed his art materials and left and Adelaide to Port Augusta, and through Darwin, to Adelaide for Georgetown, travelling by horse-drawn London, by electronic telegraph. carriage. This journey took several days. Hill was visiting Georgina, his second eldest daughter, who was a young teacher there. He completed the painting Georgetown in Focus questions and activities 1877 in his Adelaide studio. • Describe several rural livelihoods and activities shown The design of the town, Georgetown, appears to be in this painting. quite formal and almost symmetrical. In contrast, the daily life of the town is shown to be informal. A dusty road • What might be the different purposes of the buildings disappears into the distance. Shops line the street, and people in this scene? If you ever visit Georgetown, you will who have come to town, some in their best clothing, to notice that some of these buildings, and also the large conduct business or to shop are shown in various groups. main road, are still there today. Several work vehicles are being loaded; there is a coach in • Research the Overland Telegraph Line. the background – coming from, or going to, where? Teams of animals are about to begin hauling; a man and a woman sit in a passenger vehicle, perhaps having completed their shopping, while a man walks and plays with his dogs. P James Shaw

James Shaw, 1815–1881, South Australian Parliament; the House of Assembly, c.1867, Adelaide, oil on canvas, 64.0 x 93.0 cm; South Australian Government Grant 1959. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

ames Shaw came to Adelaide from Focus questions and activities Scotland in the late 1850s. In Edinburgh he had been both a portrait painter and • Notice the formality of the scene and the clothing photographer. worn by the Members. How would this scene be Shaw joined the newly formed South Australian different, or similar, today? SocietyJ of Arts and contributed a landscape and six other • Imagine you are one of the Members shown here. works of art to its first exhibition in March 1857. He What issues are being discussed in the House? competed keenly for the prizes that were awarded each • Use the following links to learn more about the year by the Society, often for specific topics. Although House of Assembly. Shaw also produced landscapes of developing ‘suburbs’, such as Kent Town and Norwood, his main income was • Make a list of the current Members, and the from commissions for house portraits. electorates they represent. Shaw’s photographic experience proved to be an asset • Which electorate do you reside in? when recording details for his paintings. This is evident in • Learn more about the South Australian Parliament: the detail of South Australian Parliament; the House of Seating in Parliament www.parliament. Assembly. Shaw has carefully collaged tiny photographic sa.gov.au/education/teachers/Facilitating%20 portraits of the men who were members of the House of A%20Parliamentary%20Debate/ Assembly in 1867 onto the painting. We can’t recognise Documents/7HouseofAssemblyMap.doc some of them because they have their backs to us, but Members of Parliament www.parliament.sa.gov.au/ others can be identified. Members/HouseofAssembly/Pages/List%20of%20 The building in the painting still stands on its original Members.aspx site, just west of what is now called Parliament House, which is today a much larger building. Q James Shaw

James Shaw, 1815–1881, The Admella wrecked, Cape Banks, 6th August,1859, 1859, Adelaide, oil on canvas, 68.5 x 97.7 cm; Gift of Poppy Burgess and Gwen Holland in memory of their grandfather Mortimer Burman 1967. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

ames Shaw was one of colonial South desperation or simply slipping away due to exhaustion. Australia’s most prolific artists, and Although there were lifeboats on the Admella, two smashed several of his works are included in as they were lowered into the water, and a third broke the exhibition. He was self-trained as a adrift. photographer and painter and he used Because of the continuing heavy seas, the rescue vessels, his skillsJ in these areas to record many events in the early Ladybird and Corio, did not arrive in the area for several life of the colony. This painting refers to a significant event days. There were only twenty-four survivors, who had in the maritime history of South Australia. clung to the wreckage for eight days. The SS Admella made regular runs between Adelaide, Melbourne and Launceston (hence its name). Travelling Focus questions and activities by sea was the quickest and most comfortable option for • Consider the impact of the disaster on the colony. early colonial travellers, given the dangers of overland When news of the fate of the Admella reached travel. At the time of its construction in Scotland in 1857, Adelaide, businesses closed, and the Houses of the Admella was one of the fastest, most technologically Parliament adjourned. Communities immediately advanced and most luxurious ships on the Australian trade united to support the survivors. What does this tell routes. It was a ‘steam sailer’, which meant that it could you about the colony at this time? travel under sail as well as a coal-fuelled steamer. On the night of 6 August 1859 the Admella was • In Shaw’s painting you can see the treacherous nature travelling from Adelaide to Melbourne with a cargo of of the ocean. Write an account of the shipwreck from copper, flour and general merchandise, as well as four a survivor’s point of view. racehorses due to run in the upcoming Melbourne Cup. In • How has Shaw achieved a sense of the dramatic in all, 113 people were on board. In heavy swell the Admella this painting? struck Carpenter’s Rocks off the southern coast of South Australia, near present-day Mount Gambier. Within fifteen • Compare Shaw’s painting with Charles Hill’s Wreck minutes of hitting the rocks, the ship began to break up, of the Admella, also in the exhibition. Describe the leaving passengers and crew clinging to the wreckage. differences you can see between them. Which At this time ships did not have particularly good painting do you prefer – and why? navigation equipment or radios to signal for help. • Find out about shipwrecks along the South Australian Unfortunately, the nearest lighthouse (with keeper) was coast in colonial times. some distance away, and it took two seamen who had • Learn more about the Admella on the South reached shore some time to get to Cape Northumberland Australian Maritime Museum link: http://www. to raise the alarm. Captain McEwan had been able to history.sa.gov.au/maritime/exhibitions/wrecked.html distribute a little food and water, but many people had perished by this time – either by drinking salt water in R Rosa Fiveash

Rosa Fiveash, 1854–1938, Xanthorroea semiplana (grass tree), c.1893, Adelaide, watercolour on paper, 41.0 x 30.7 cm; Botanic Gardens of Adelaide

osa Fiveash was an outstanding botanical Focus questions and activities illustrator. She received a commission to illustrate the book, The forest flora of South Australia by John Ednie Brown, • What is the advantage of including in one painting, a printed in 1882. She provided many detailed drawings for close-up of the grass tree spike and flower detail and otherR publications. the grass tree in its environment? The governor of the day, Lord Tennyson, and Adelaide philanthropist, Robert Barr Smith, were so taken with • View the other works by Rosa Fiveash in the Rosa Fiveash’s skills and her aesthetic sensibility that they exhibition. Select your favourite and describe the bought many of her works and donated them to the Art form of the plant and/or flower and its colour. Gallery of South Australia. Rosa Fiveash continued to paint until she was eighty years old, living and working as • Why do scientists continue to rely on the work an artist in her family’s home in North Adelaide. of botanical illustrators, rather than simply taking Xanthorrhoea semiplana (grass tree), c.1893, is an example photographs of flora? of a detailed botanical illustration which the artist has also ‘developed’ into a watercolour depicting the natural • Notice the fine detail in other botanical drawings in environment of the grass tree. At the beginning of this exhibition. Later, draw a native South Australian settlement in South Australia there was no photography, plant or flower in detail as if you were a botanical so the work of scientific artists and botanical artists was illustrator. important in creating a record of the natural environment, including the flora and fauna. Today, botanical illustrations continue to be used to help identify, classify and record flora. GlossaryAesthetic referring to an appreciation of beautiful things in art and nature Botanical illustrator a person who paints, sketches or otherwise illustrates botanical subjects such as trees and flowers

Cartography the art and science of map-making

Collaged an artistic composition of materials and objects pasted over a surface

Commissioned engaged for a fee to complete a particular work

Displaced moved unwillingly from a place

Empathy identification with and understanding of another’s situation, feelings, and motives

Engravings the art or technique of carving metal or wood block in relief

Fauna referring to animals

Flora referring to plants

Immigration to enter and settle in a country or region of which the person is not originally from

Lithographs the art or process of producing an image on a flat, specially prepared stone, treating the items to be printed with a greasy substance to which ink adheres, and of taking impressions from this on paper to form a print

Observational drawings drawing what you see in front of you

Philanthropist someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes

Slipway a ramp by which a boat is launched

Surveyor-General an official responsible for government surveying in a specific country or territory

Topography the shape of the land, including its various features, such as hills and mountains

Traditional the beliefs and customs handed down from generation to generation

Wurley an Aboriginal shelter

cover detail: S. T. Gill, Australia, 1818–1880, Rundle Street, Adelaide, 1845, Adelaide, watercolour on paper, 27.3 x 40.5 cm; Gift of the 1890. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

page 1 detail: Edmund Gouldsmith, Australia, 1852–1932, Adelaide from Montefiore Hill 1885, 1885, Adelaide, watercolour on paper, 28.0 x 61.0 cm; Gift of the Council of the School of Mines 1891. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Education Services is managed by a DECD teacher based at the Art Gallery of South Australia South Australia Illustrated Colonial painting in the Land of Promise

A R William Woolnoth Q B

C William Light P D Martha Berkeley

E Charles Hill

F J.M. Skipper O G S.T. Gill

H S.T. Gill M N I S.T. Gill

J S.T. Gill A E I J K G.F. Angas D F H G L Julius Schomburgk

M Henry Steiner C B N Alexander Schramm K O Charles Hill L P Charles Hill

Q James Shaw

R James Shaw Rosa Fiveash EDUCATION RESOURCE MAP

Art Gallery of South Australia North Terrace Adelaide artgallery.sa.gov.au