sketcher and naturalist, was born in Brunswick, Germany, on 17 February 1830, son of William Krefft and Johanna, née Buschhoff. In 1850 he migrated to the United States, then came to Melbourne in the Revenue in November 1852. After working on the goldfields for five years, Krefft joined William Blandowski 's expedition to the Murray and Darling rivers, on which he made over 500 drawings of natural history specimens and Aboriginal subjects. Examples are in the Mitchell Library.

As a professional painter of 7 Cardigan Street, Melbourne, Krefft showed examples of his expedition drawings at the 1858 Victorian Industrial Society Exhibition. One reviewer commented: 'Mr Krefft’s drawings have a special interest as they are illustrations from the life of some of the more curious animals &c. of the country … the most striking is that of a native corroboree, at Gall Gall, and of a rare animal, the chaeropus, about which there has of late been so much controversy.’

In 1860 Krefft was appointed assistant curator of the Australian Museum on the recommendation of Governor Denison. Over the following decade, he built up an international reputation as a scientist. He was one of the few Australian scientists to accept Darwin’s theory of evolution and disseminate it in the 1860s. He published over 200 articles, as well as a book, The Snakes of Australia (1869), for which Harriet and Helena Scott drew the plates. In 1871 Krefft published The Mammals of Australia , again with illustrations by the Scott sisters. The award-winning photographs Krefft exhibited from the Australian Museum in 1870 were almost certainly taken by Henry Barnes and/or Victor Prout , but the 'watercolour drawings of numerous animals [and] a variety of sketches of Australian birds’ he showed in 1872 at the annual exhibition of the Agricultural Society of NSW would have been his own.

After many clashes with the Museum Trustees, in 1874 a government committee recommended Krefft’s dismissal on 12 charges ranging from drunkenness to disobedience. On appealing to Premier Henry Parkes to intervene, Krefft was cautioned 'to keep a cool temper and a respectful bearing even to gentlemen who may be opposed to you’. The advice fell on deaf ears. Krefft finally barricaded himself in the building and had to be forcibly evicted. E. Lewis Scott’s pantomime Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star! or, Harlequin Jack Frost, Little Tom Tucker and the Old Woman that Lived in a Shoe , performed at Sydney’s Royal Victoria Theatre in 1876, had Twinkle say:

... Of its curator, the Museum’s bereft.

They treated like a dog poor Gerard Krefft.

They voted him a thousand, and think it funny

To laugh at him, when he demands his money.

Several lawsuits followed and Krefft received some compensation but the long fight ruined his health. He died at Randwick, Sydney, on 19 February 1881, aged 51, survived by his wife Annie, née McPhail, and two of their four children.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011