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Section 3 The Progress of Art
The colonisation of Australia, which proceeded from the voyages of discovery in the Pacific, is documented in the work of many artists. In the early days of the settlement in New South Wales those artists were either convicts-usually forgers like Watling and Lycett-or Navy men. Like John Lewin, the first free professionally-trained artist in the colony, they sought to capture the strange new flora and fauna for an eager audience back home. European artistic conventions and taste made appreciation of the Australian landscape more difficult. Images recording the 'progress of art'-or civilisation-over the reign of nature were, however, considered very pleasing. The terrible cost of that 'progress' is also recorded in the displacement and destruction of Australia's indigenous people and their culture. An ongoing experiment in the transplantation of European culture and peoples, the colonisation of Australia received a much-needed boost from the discovery of gold, which delivered people and money in sufficient quantities to ensure the experiment's survival.
1.
The Botanic Macaroni
2.
John Hunter, 1737-1821
3.
Henry Brewer, 1739-1796
4.
John William Lewin, 1770-1819
5.
Joseph Lycett, 1775-c.1829
6.
Nicholas Matthew Condy, 1799-1857
7.
Edwin Stocqueler, 1829-c1857
8.
Lieut Robert Dale, 1810-1856,
9.
W.S. Hatton
10.
Eugene Von Guerard, 1811-1901
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A selection of images from the Paradise Possessed exhibition. National Library of Australia. Click here to find out more about NLA exhibitions. Copyright: ©1998, National Library of Australia
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