136. AUGUSTUS EARLE

During the three years Augustus Earle spent in Sydney, he produced a series of painted portraits of local identities and is noted for having produced the first ever lithographs in the colony. Based on sketches of the colony and its citizens, Earle produced these prints in 1826 on a lithographic press that had formerly belonged to the former Governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane, a friend of Earles half-brother. Brisbane was a keen astronomer and brought two lithographic presses to New South Wales, planning to use them to print charts of the Southern Hemisphere stars, but none were produced. Earle acquired one press and in 1826 printed a series of Sydney views and several impressions of Bungaree based on his full-length oil portrait of the celebrated Eora man.¹ He also printed a preliminary version of the example discussed here, titled Native Blacks, New South Wales aka Drinking Bull/ Natives of New South Wales, as they appear in the Streets of Sydney.

Footnote
1. See entry for: Bungaree: King of the Aborigines of New South Wales, Augustus Earle, 1826. Courtesy State Library of New South Wales (online)
 
Andrew Gaynor