dc.contributor.author | Findlay, Elisabeth | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2019-02-27T01:18:25Z | |
dc.date.available | 2019-02-27T01:18:25Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2014 | |
dc.identifier.issn | 1443-4318 | |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1080/14434318.2014.976896 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10072/173544 | |
dc.description.abstract | In 1793, the artist Thomas Watling wrote to his aunt in Scotland and described his
unhappy experience of living in the colony of New South Wales.1 As a disgruntled
convict, Watling was far from impressed with his new surroundings; little escaped
his diatribe, from the dull landscape to the unfair policies of the Governor. While
Watling’s words are cheerless and dismissive of the fledgling community at Sydney
Cove, they still offer us tantalising insights into colonial life, particularly regarding
the colonisers’ interactions with the local inhabitants.
When Watling writes about the ‘hours’ that the ‘natives’ would sit with him and
watch him work, he conjures up an intriguing scene of people from vastly different
worlds sitting calmly together and observing each other. Watling noted that it is ‘no
small compliment’ to the art of painting that it is found in different countries,
observing that ‘several rocks round us have outr e figures engraven in them’.2 But
such glimpses fuel further questions: Who were these Aborigines? Why were they so
fascinated by Watling’s work? Could these moments of contact have changed the
relationship between people who were of such different cultural backgrounds?
This article analyses the portraits of Aborigines produced by artists working in
Australia during the first two decades of the European settlement of New South Wales,
concentrating on the period from 1788 through to the start of the nineteenth century.
The images are examined in relation to European colonisation and Enlightenment
thinking, as well as via an attempt to gauge the perspective of the sitters. The study is
limited to portraits (as opposed representations of a ‘type’, or unnamed, anonymous,
generic figures), because portraits inherently involve negotiation between the artist and
sitter, and the nature of this exchange is the focus of this study. The portrait is analysed
as a relic of encounter, an object that has survived historical vagaries and is the product
of a particular meeting at a particular time. | |
dc.description.peerreviewed | Yes | |
dc.language | English | |
dc.language.iso | eng | |
dc.publisher | Australian and New Zealand Art Association | |
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrom | 151 | |
dc.relation.ispartofpageto | 167 | |
dc.relation.ispartofissue | 2 | |
dc.relation.ispartofjournal | Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art | |
dc.relation.ispartofvolume | 14 | |
dc.subject.fieldofresearch | Art History | |
dc.subject.fieldofresearch | Art Theory and Criticism | |
dc.subject.fieldofresearch | Visual Arts and Crafts | |
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode | 190102 | |
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode | 1901 | |
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode | 1905 | |
dc.subject.keywords | Portraits | |
dc.subject.keywords | Aborigines | |
dc.subject.keywords | European settlement | |
dc.subject.keywords | New South Wales | |
dc.subject.keywords | Artists | |
dc.title | Relics of Encounter: Rapport and Trust in the Early Portraits of the Aborigines of New South Wales | |
dc.type | Journal article | |
dc.type.description | C1 - Articles | |
dc.type.code | C - Journal Articles | |
gro.faculty | Arts, Education & Law Group, Queensland College of Art | |
gro.rights.copyright | © 2014 Art Association of Australia and New Zealand. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version. | |
gro.hasfulltext | Full Text | |
gro.griffith.author | Findlay, Elisabeth A. | |