James Dunlop b. 1793 Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK

  • Artist (Printmaker) , (Draughtsman)
Nineteenth-century astronomer, a poet and a collector of geological, anthropological and natural history specimens. Dunlop clearly had some sketching ability.
Talk | Version history | Updated Oct. 19, 2011 | Created Jan. 1, 1992
Name
James Dunlop
Birth date
31 October 1793
Birth place
Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK
Death date
22 September 1848
Death place
Brisbane Water, Gosford, NSW
Gender
Male
Roles
  • Artist (Printmaker)
  • Artist (Draughtsman)
Residence
  • 1831- 1847 Parramatta, Sydney, New South Wales
  • 1821- 1827 Sydney, New South Wales
  • London, England, UK
Other Occupation
  • astronomer
Arrival
  • 7 November 1821 (Sydney)
Active Period
  • 1821- 1847
Languages
  • English
Is Indigenous
No
Initial Record Data Source
  • The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870

sketcher, lithographer and astronomer, was born in Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 31 October 1793, son of John Dunlop, a weaver, and Janet, née Boyle, a friend of the poet Robert Burns. Dunlop educated himself at night school in Beith after days working in a thread factory; he was building telescopes when he was seventeen. Later he met Thomas Brisbane and developed his interest in astronomy. Dunlop arrived at Sydney on 7 November 1821 as assistant astronomer to Brisbane, the new governor. Before setting sail for the colony he appears to have worked as a lithographer in London. In 1890 his family had in their possession a copy of Burns’s Caledonia , 'written and transferred to stone by James Dunlop, at R. Ackermann’s, no. 101 Strand, 27th March 1821’.

Brisbane imported a lithographic press from Ackermann’s as part of the equipment for the observatory in Sydney. When he left in November 1825 he gave it to Dunlop, who in turn had passed it on to Augustus Earle by August 1826. It is not known what lithographic art, if any, Dunlop may have printed in the interim. His official work for Brisbane does not seem to have included pictorial prints.

In 1827 Dunlop returned to Scotland to work with Brisbane in his private observatory at Makerstown. Four years later he was appointed superintendent of the Parramatta Observatory and returned to New South Wales, working there until August 1847 when, due to ill-health, he retired to his property on Brisbane Water (Gosford, NSW). He died, childless, on 22 September 1848, survived by his wife Jean, née Service, whom he had married in 1816.

As well as being an indefatigable astronomer, a poet, and a collector of geological, anthropological and natural history specimens, Dunlop clearly had some sketching ability. He made many astronomical drawings during his colonial years and Service stated: 'I knew also, from a few drawings of classical subjects bearing his signature, that he was a fair hand at a pen and ink sketch’. When Rev. J. McGarvie visited Dunlop at Parramatta in October 1826, the local Aborigines were invited into the house and, said McGarvie, Dunlop 'took the portraits of the blacks’.

Writers:
Staff Writer
Date written:
1992
Last updated:
2011
child of
John Dunlop
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
child of
née Boyle Janet Dunlop
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Thomas Brisbane
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
spouse of
née Service Jean Dunlop
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Joseph Backler
1813
associate of
Augustus Earle
1793
Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Painter)
associate of
George Peacock
1806
Artist (Painter)
Citations:
  • McGarvie, J. (Rev.), Diary, (Place: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, ms)
  • Service, J., (1890), Thir Notandums... to which is appended a Biographical Sketch of James Dunlop Esq., (Place: Edinburgh)
  • Darragh, T.A., (1990), The Establishment and Development of Engraving and Lithography in Melbourne to the Time of the Gold Rush, (Place: Willow Bend, New South Wales)
  • Butler, R., (1982), Australia's first lithographs, (Place: Australian Connoisseur and Collector 3 (1982))
  • Wood, H., (1966), 'James Dunlop', (Place: Australian Dictionary of Biography, ed. Pike, D. A. Shaw, M. Clark, B. Nairn, G. Serle and R. Ward, vol. 1 Melbourne, Victoria)