Finally releasing this research into the wild. Years ago I was deep into horse racing results from 1839 to 1845 using #TroveAU and it paid off. No back to the future wins 👀 but recovering forgotten historical context for a watercolour of the Adelaide Races by John Michael Skipper.

I identify this picture as a race for "gentlemen riders" on New Year's Day 1839 featuring a uniformed Captain Charles Berkeley. (This is a side outcome of the #S_T_Gill project.)

#Adelaide #historyAU #colonialArtAU #sportsHistory #horseRacing
New Article: https://coombe.id.au/1840s_South_Australia/New_Year_Races_by_Skipper.htm

Welcome to my project on arguably Australia's most recognisable colonial artist, Samuel Thomas Gill. It's a blend of #catalogueRaisonné, biography, historical narrative and map atlas. The scope is from Gill's arrival in #SouthAustralia in 1839 up to his early time at the Victorian gold diggings in 1852-53.

Project update: Six articles on the diggings are now complete except for pending visits to Sydney and Adelaide to check on some undigitised sources. Good progress on at least two articles for 1839-1844 gap.

Later this year I'll write some more reflective material and some of particular interest post 1853.

You can follow the hashtag #S_T_Gill for updates - you don't need to follow me.

#historyAU #1840s #1850s #VictoriaAU #colonialArtAU #historicalMapping #catalogueRaisonne #biography
https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill

Religious observance on the Victorian gold diggings in mid 1852 was an informal outdoors affair. Here a group gather around a preacher on a Sunday at Forrest Creek. The crowd is generally well-behaved but follow the preacher's eyes!

(Working on this picture now and it gave me a chuckle.) #S_T_Gill #1850s #colonialArtAU

Picture: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135677837/view

I made good progress today fine-tuning the back end narrative in the #S_T_Gill project. It concludes with this magnificent colour print of the Victorian diggings as painted in July 1852 and published as a print in March 1853. #colonialArtAU

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135629862/view

“Double Nation: A History of Australian Art” (2023) by Ian McLean #LibrariesACT

This was a serendipitous find on display at my local library. I have an interest in #colonialArtAU and this book gave me a much broader insight. (Don’t let the academese of the Introduction put you off as the rest of the book is very accessible.)

It is a sequel to the author’s “Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art” (2016).

#AustralianArt #artHistoryAU #artHistory

#S_T_Gill project update

I last left Gill in December 1851 in Adelaide. Like many others at the time he was contemplating the Victorian goldrush: https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/S_T_Gill_May_to_December_1851.htm.

I'm now working on his early sketches and prints of diggings in 1852. Much to do: about 70 artworks and about 6 webpages with mutual cross-references. It's going well but I can see this part taking another couple of months. #colonialArtAU

Laziest gold diggers, 1852

A digger rocks the cradle. His mate in the striped shirt is meant to pour water from the (non-existent) stream into the cradle, but stands with hand in pocket. Another digger is on smoko. Realism forgone here by artist George French Angas. #colonialArtAU
Full image: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135648925/view

A picture of an 1843 event, signed "1842" by the artist, but painted about 1855!

S.T. Gill continued to portray South Australia well after he left there in early 1852.

My new article identifying the retrospectives: https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/S_T_Gill_South_Australia_Retrospectives.htm

#S_T_Gill #SouthAustralia #artHistoryAU #colonialArtAU #catalogueRaisonne

The ST Gill Project: An ongoing project of original research on Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-1880), Australian colonial artist, presented in online formats.

Read About the ST Gill Project – how it started, how it's going, rationale, scope, approach, method, content, how to access content and acknowledgements.

I've just added an "about" page: https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/about.htm

#S_T_Gill #colonialArtAU #catalogueRaisonne

WA Cawthorne (1824-1897) was a school teacher and amateur artist. His #1840s diaries and pictures are among the most valuable records of Aboriginal culture made by a South Australian colonist. He's known for helping with George French Angas' "South Australia Illustrated" project. My new article mainly concerns his relationship with #S_T_Gill, his art master from February 1845 and shows his development as an artist. The article identifies further Gill works, plus six Cawthorne portraits of #AboriginalAustralians in the British Museum.

My new article: https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/S_T_Gill_and_W_A_Cawthorne.htm

#S_T_Gill #colonialArtAU #historyAU #W_A_Cawthorne #SouthAustralia #colonialArt #Aboriginal

This is the earliest known picture of the "new" Government House, Adelaide, in 1840/41. Previously attributed to Governor George Gawler, this painting is by S T Gill for Gawler. This is before Gill embedded his typical busyness of characters and foreground vegetation doodling. Also: famous English caricaturist George Cruikshank gets an important mention.
#Adelaide #1840s #StateLibrarySA #S_T_Gill #ColonialArtAU #19thCentury #ArtHistory

NEW ARTICLE: https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/S_T_Gill_Government_House_for_George_Gawler.htm

"Klemzig, Angas, a German Hay Wagon and Chickens"

In 2019 I tried to see this sketch in the National LIbrary - was there anything on the back to help understand its context? But it was offsite at an exhibition, then another, then the pandemic, then another exhibition, then the storm damage, and now this week, more than 4 years later, we finally met up!

My new article further evolves the story of S T Gill as a ghost artist for George French Angas in 1844-45.

#S_T_Gill #Adelaide #colonialArtAU #historyAU

https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/Klemzig_Angas_Gill.htm

As usual I'm continuing my artist S T Gill project on multiple fronts. Lately ...
1. I've fixed a bunch of broken links. Some of which I efficiently generated in html from my database! Have I got them all yet?
2. For many years I've known about one painting c.1844-46 and this week I finally saw a photo of it - but the title location doesn't match the topography in the picture! A meandering stream instead of the title's wide River Murray! More to investigate there.
3. Next week I expect to finish a first narrative-only article - until now they've always included catalogued artworks.
4. As I stagger towards the project's finish line, I want the collecting institutions to see the line too, so I've added a "dashboard" showing progress by institution at https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/index.htm#ProjectStats.

#colonialArtAU #S_T_Gill #SouthAustralia

State Library: We’re doing a book on our 300 exhibited oil paintings. Would you write about this tiny oil “The Shepherd” by S T Gill?
Me: I’m not sure you’d like that. I think it’s a fake.
SL: Ooh, let’s get back to you.
…
SL: Yep, let’s do it!

Nearly a year later, this very large book (with my small part in it) is done!

#StateLibraryNSW #NewSouthBooks #colonialArt #colonialArtAU #S_T_Gill

https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/the-oil-painting-collection-of-the-state-library-of-new-south-wales-186186/

BOOK REVIEW | "But on reaching the final appendix I found extensive plagiarism. This took the book beyond being merely derivative and I decided to review it after all."

Book just released : "Colonial Artist S. T. Gill" by Doug Limbrick.

My review: https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/Doug_Limbrick_2023_on_S_T_Gill.htm

#S_T_Gill #HistoryAU #ColonialArtAU

I took a necessary side-track from my project scope (S.T. Gill's 1840-1852 works) in support of understanding the above portraits. Here are (often referenced) 1860s retrospectives of the 1846 Horrocks expedition. Knowing their (late) date helps understand how "historically reliable" they are.

#catalogueRaisonné #cataloguing #S_T_Gill #HistoryAU #Horrocks #SouthAustralia #ColonialArtAU #ArtGallerySA #1860s

My first out of scope article: https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/S_T_Gill_and_Horrocks_Retrospectives.htm

I've identified the earliest Australian paintings of S T Gill : 1840.

In 1846 Gill accompanied John Ainsworth Horrocks' small and fatal expedition. There are two portraits of Horrocks known only by early black and white photos now held by the State Library of South Australia.

For 7 years I thought Horrocks' gaze was heavenward and this was a post-mortem portrait after 1846. I was wrong. I attribute them to Gill and date them to early 1840.

#S_T_Gill #StateLibrarySA #1840s #SouthAustralia #Adelaide #ColonialArtAU #ArtHistoryAU #EyeContact

My new article: https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/S_T_Gill_and_Horrocks_Portraits.htm

Going fishing ...

Five delightful palm-sized pictures showing activities of Aboriginal people, c. 1846/1847 - three on fishing - by S.T. Gill.

My updated article (tweaked dating): https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/S_T_Gill_and_George_Hamilton's_Breeches.htm

#Aboriginal #AboriginalCulture #S_T_Gill #1840s #ColonialArt #ColonialArtAU

The Art Gallery of South Australia has lately put online a few more artworks by colonial artist George French Angas.

"Extinct Crater, Mount Gambier, 6th May 1844" is one I'd written about (from a book image in B&W). Seeing it in colour supports my contention that "Blue Lake" is by Gill not Angas (and it is not Blue Lake).

Article (with 8+ pictures) | The Mount Gambier pictures of Gill and Angas (and von Guerard) | https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/S_T_Gill_Subject_Mount_Gambier.htm

#AGSAAdelaide #MountGambier #ArtHistory #ColonialArt #S_T_Gill #1840s #ArtHistoryAU #ColonialArtAU