watercolourist and sketcher, is the name now used for an unidentified painter (or painters) – the most prolific of the First Fleet artists – who worked in Sydney from 1788 to the mid 1790s. Although warning that the Port Jackson Painter may not be a single person, he (or they) was given this name by Bernard Smith in European Vision and the South Pacific (Melbourne 1960) on the basis of stylistic similarities observable in a large number of watercolours contained in collections of drawings relating to the beginnings of settlement in Sydney: notably the Watling Collection and the Banks ms 34 in the British Museum (Natural History), a collection of 100 bird drawings (ML) and some drawings in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection (NLA). On present evidence the most likely candidate for single authorship of the drawings would seem to be Henry Brewer , but this is not conclusive; another contender is Francis Fowkes .

Bernard Smith describes the Port Jackson Painter as working within the traditions of naval topographical drawing but using characteristic mannerisms such as short dark curly lines for tree and rock markings and shadows. He appears to have influenced Thomas Watling 's style in his natural history drawings. Watling is not known to have made any drawings of plants or animals before arriving in the colony and may have been ordered to copy his predecessor’s watercolours, as Smith argues in The Art of the First Fleet (Melbourne 1988). In turn Watling, as the more skilful professional artist, may have influenced the Port Jackson Painter’s work. A crucial piece of evidence to solve the puzzle would be an authentic example of Brewer’s handwriting and/or artwork, the Port Jackson Painter having annotated almost all his watercolours in the Watling Collection (though none in the Banks ms 34).

The most sophisticated of the Port Jackson Painter’s drawings are his animal and plant specimens in the Banks ms 34 such as the diamond python, Morelia spilota . Far more naive are his portraits of Aboriginal people and his narrative scenes of early white and black encounters. The lack of conventional formulae, however, make these most distinctive in style, subject and, often, inscription. A profile half-length portrait of an Aboriginal man wearing white body paint, for instance, is captioned: 'The manner in which the Natives of New South Wales ornament themselves. Native name Goo-roo-da. We suppose this man is a chief among the Thommarragals’. A woman with a cord in her mouth linked to a child’s head is labelled: 'A Woman of New South Wales cureing the head ache, the blood which she takes from her own gums she supposes comes along the string from the part affected in the patient. This operation they call Bee-an-nee’ (ink and w/c, Watling 62).

A tondo containing a frontal bust of a man decorated with pink body paint (red being the colour for war) captioned 'Native name Ben-nel-long. As painted when angry after Botany Bay Colebee was wounded’ (ink and w/c, Watling 41) appears to be associated with the lively narrative scene, 'Mr White, Harris & Laing with a party of Soldiers visiting Botany Bay Colebee at that Place when wounded near Botony [sic] Bay’ (w/c, Watling 25). One hypothesis is that these images are associated with an incident described by David Collins which happened in December 1797 (and, if so, the Port Jackson Painter cannot be Brewer, who died in July 1796), but Smith believes it more likely illustrates an incident of about 1789 90 not otherwise recorded.

Several of the artist’s watercolour drawings group into narrative sequences. For example, those inscribed 'The Governor making the best of his way to the Boat after being wounded with the spear sticking in his Shoulder’ and 'Mr Waterhouse endeavouring to break the Spear after Govr Phillips was wounded by Wil-le-me-ring where the Whale was cast on shore in Manly Cove’ – two wide, action-packed landscapes with many tiny figures running about under feathery trees on the shore – are followed by 'Ban nel lang meeting the Governor by appointment after he was wounded by Wil le ma ring in September 1790’, which shows four Aborigines in canoes lined up across the foreground with a party of Europeans rowing up from the left (1790, w/cs, Watling 23, 24, 40). Such images add a livelier human dimension to the picture of 'Botany Bay’ than was presented in published views. They depict a more active, confrontational Aboriginal presence in the colony than is suggested by Thomas Watling’s comparatively passive though undoubtedly more technically accomplished and psychologically penetrating portraits and groups. Some are closely comparable with William Bradley 's watercolours.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011