Art of Australia
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Tuesday, 27 February 2007 |
 The first descriptions of Australia by European artists were mainly "natural-history art", depicting the distinctive flora and fauna for scientific purposes. Sydney Parkinson, the plant draftsperson on James Cook's 1770 voyage that first charted the eastern coastline of Australia, made a large number of such drawings under the direction of naturalist Joseph Banks.
Despite Banks' suggestions, no professional natural-history artist sailed on the First Fleet in 1788, so until the turn of the century all drawings made in the colony were by soldiers, including naval officers George Raper and John Hunter, and convict artists, including Thomas Watling.
However, many of these drawings are by unknown artists. Most are in the style of naval draughtsmanship. Most of these drawings were of natural-history topics, specifically birds, but a few depict the infant colony itself. Several professional natural-history illustrators accompanied expeditions in the early 19th century, including Ferdinand Bauer (who travelled with Matthew Flinders), and Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, who travelled with a French expedition led by Nicolas Baudin. The first resident professional artist was John Lewin, who arrived in 1800 and published two volumes of natural-history art.
As well as natural history, there were some ethnographic portraiture of Aborigines, particularly in the 1830s. Some of the most notable artists include Augustus Earle in New South Wales and in Tasmania.
Conrad Martens worked from 1835 to 1878 as a professional artists, painting many landscapes. He was commercially successful. His work, though, is regarded as softening the landscape to fit European sensibilities. Another significant landscape artist of this era was John Glover.
A few attempts at art exhibitions were made in the 1840s, which attracted a number of artists but were unfortunately commercial failures. By the 1850s however, regular exhibitions became popular, with a huge variety of art types represented.
The first such was in 1854 in Melbourne. An art museum, which eventually became the National Gallery of Victoria, was founded in 1861, and began to collect Australian works as well as gathering a collection of European masters. Some of the artists of note included Eugene von Guerard, William Strutt, and Louis Buvelot.Labels: art, Australia |
posted by Tabitha @ 2:43 PM  |
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