135. AUGUSTUS EARLE

This lithograph by the British-born Augustus Earle is among the most significant images produced during the early colonial years of Sydney. Earle lived in Sydney from 1825 to 1828, punctuated by a seven-month side journey to New Zealand in 1828. An inveterate traveller, he is noted for being the first independent, professionally trained artist to visit each of the five continents and record his experiences.¹ Whilst in Australia, he became a celebrated portraitist and his painting Bungaree c1826 is among the first full-length portraits in oil to be painted in the colony, and the first to be issued as a lithograph.² The print considered here was executed later in London after Earles return and bears significant alterations from the original.

Footnotes
1. The Wandering Artist: Augustus Earles Travels around the World 1820-29, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 1994, non-paginated
2. Hansen, D., Death Dance, Australian Book Review, no.290, April 2007
 
Andrew Gaynor