watercolourist, sketcher and public servant, was one of four sons of the nine children of John Burnett and Penelope Isabella, a daughter of Sir Henry Browne Hayes. When his father was appointed the first colonial secretary of Van Diemen’s Land in 1826, James remained in England to complete his education. He arrived at Hobart Town on 23 December 1832 and was appointed clerk in his father’s department on 1 January 1833. On 1 June 1836 Burnett became chief clerk in the Survey Department. He was granted leave of absence on the grounds of ill-health and returned to England in November 1846. There, on 14 February 1849, he married Margaret Thomas of Piccadilly; they left for Van Diemen’s Land on board the Victor on 21 June 1849. On his return to Hobart Town, Burnett resumed duty in the Survey Department and remained there until his death on 9 January 1858.

Burnett was a follower of John Skinner Prout in the mid 1840s. In 1846 he was a member of the Hobart Town Sketching Club which Prout had organised and which included, among others, P.G. Fraser , F.G. Simpkinson , W.P. Kay and G.T.W.B. Boyes . In the 1845 art exhibition held in the Hobart Town Legislative Council Chambers, Burnett exhibited Sketch at Inverquharity . At R.V. Hood 's Exhibition Gallery that same year, he showed Mount Direction &c., from Lansdowne Crescent and Classic Ground . The London Art Union , referring to the 1846 Hobart Town Exhibition, stated that 'it embraces many contributions by resident artists and amateurs at the head of whom stand the names of the Bishop of Tasmania, J.S. Prout, ... J.A. Medland, S.J. Harvey, T. Bock, T.G. Gregson, F.A. [sic] Simpkinson, P. Frazer [sic], W.P. Kay, J.L. Burnell, Mrs Fereday and Gill’ – 'Burnell’ (well down the list) being a misprint for Burnett. After Burnett’s death one of his pictures, Mill , was exhibited in the 1862 63 Art Treasures Exhibition at the New Museum Building of the Royal Society of Tasmania in Hobart.

Writers:

Brown, Tony

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011