david coombe history
RESEARCH PROJECT:
Samuel Thomas Gill (1818 - 1880), colonial artist, with a focus on the South Australian years and
covering his life and work from his arrival in South Australia at the end of 1839
up to his early time at the Victorian gold rush in 1852-53.
An ongoing project of original research presented in online formats.
Samuel Thomas Gill is arguably Australia's most recognisable colonial artist. To his contemporaries, he was widely known by his initials, S.T.G. This research project is building a catalogue raisonnée of Gill's earliest colonial works, from 1839 South Australia through to his early time at the Victorian gold rush in 1852-53.
Read About the ST Gill Project – how it started, how it's going, rationale, scope, approach, method, content, how to access content and acknowledgements.
This index page links to individual articles within the project – just scroll down to see these. You may also find updates in my #S_T_Gill tagged posts on Mastodon.
You can also find further related material on 1840s South Australia (including interactive maps) as a side project.
Feedback is welcome.
There will be some broken links – please let me know. There will also be errors – a project of this size makes that a sure thing. I welcome corrections, as well as your correspondence if you want to engage with my analysis or conclusions.
As a general rule I don't appraise works that are for sale. My motivation is to contribute to knowledge commons and the public good – hence the near exclusive focus on works held by public collecting institutions. This keeps me busy enough.
The articles below are listed with the most recent ones towards the top. Each is labelled according to style: Narrative / Catalogue / Analysis / Map (and combinations of these). The first link "Indexes, Catalogue, Lists, Status" has other pathways into the project material.
Indexes, Catalogue, Lists, Status, Help
A list of indexes, contents and other lists for this project, including:
S.T. Gill - Scott Fakes and Adelaide Signatures
Several 'Gill' watercolours surfaced in the 1890s with connections to amateur artist Margaret Cochrane Scott nee Little and daughter journalist Winnifred 'Magpie' Scott. Two were fake. These and others had the uncommon 'STG Adelaide' signatures.
ANALYSIS | October 2025
H.C. Jervis Engravings | 1841/1842
H. C. Jervis made engravings in Adelaide of landmark buildings in 1841-1842. Initials "C.W.C" on them became an authorship red herring. More likely they're based on originals by S. T. Gill. There are links too with the 1842 Kingston map.
CATALOGUE, ANALYSIS | August 2025
S.T. Gill at Angas' Barossa 1844
S. T. Gill was in the Barossa sketching for the Angas family from 29 October to 4 November 1844. I identify some works as well as influences on Angas publications: "South Australia Illustrated" and "Barossa Range and its neighbourhood".
CATALOGUE, NARRATIVE, ANALYSIS | July 2025
S.T. Gill - Contents - Horrocks
A new overview page of Horrocks-related content. Also two new pages of Horrocks content:
John Ainsworth Horrocks' 1846 Expedition Journal
S.T. Gill on the Horrocks Expedition 1846.
CATALOGUE, NARRATIVE, ANALYSIS | July 2025
Klemzig, Angas, a German Hay Wagon and Chickens
Analysis of a pencil sketch of the German village of Klemzig. I re-attribute the sketch from G F Angas to S T Gill, revealing more of the collaboration between them. Also Gill's likely role in the Bethany picture.
AN IMPORTANT UPDATE | July 2025
S.T. Gill - Subject - Shepherd
S.T. Gill frequently portrayed the shepherd and his dog with a flock. Showing Gill's shepherd pictures from around 1840 to 1874. Written for Reading the Rooms : Behind the paintings of the State Library of New South Wales.
ANALYSIS | September 2024
S.T. Gill - Works - 1844 to 1846
Works by S.T. Gill in the period 1844 to 1846, not elsewhere included.
CATALOGUE | September 2024
S.T. Gill - South Australia Retrospectives
S.T. Gill continued to portray South Australia after he left there in early 1852. This article lists works I think are Gill's retrospectives of South Australia, with an emphasis on the works Appleyard dated in the South Australian years.
ANALYSIS | May 2024
S.T. Gill and W.A. Cawthorne
WA Cawthorne (1824-1897) was a school teacher and amateur artist. He helped George French Angas' extensively with his 'South Australia Illustrated' project. This article is primarily about his relationship with ST Gill, his art master from February 1845. It identifies further Gill works.
CATALOGUE, NARRATIVE, ANALYSIS | May 2024
S.T. Gill, November 1845 to June 1846
After completing the commission for James Allen and the South Australian Company, in Novermber 1845 Gill briefly trialled Daguerreotype (photography). Little is known about what he did next, up until the time he left on Horrocks' expedition in July 1846.
NARRATIVE, CATALOGUE, ANALYSIS | April 2024
S. T. Gill's Government House for George Gawler
Previously attributed to Governor George Gawler, this work is by Gill for Gawler in 1840/1841. It is the earliest known picture of new Government House. This work is before Gill developed his typical foreground doodling and busyness of characters.
CATALOGUE & ANALYSIS | March 2024
Daguerreotype and Early Photography in 1840s South Australia
November 1845 to February 1846 in Adelaide, South Australia was an intense period of pioneering Daguerreotype photography by George Heseltine, Robert Norman, S T Gill, Edward Schohl, Robert Hall and G B Goodman. There was also an earlier effort in August 1845 when William Little "acquired" Daguerreotype. What was Gill's role?
I examine this microhistory and reach different conclusions from previous writers. I identify an earlier milestone which takes the history of photography in South Australia back another two years to August 1843. What happened to the first Daguerreotype brought to Australia in 1841 by Captain Lucas?
NARRATIVE & ANALYSIS | January 2024
Klemzig, Angas, a German Hay Wagon and Chickens
Analysis of a pencil sketch of the German village of Klemzig. A comparison of the Klemzig pictures of F.R. Nixon, G. F. Angas and S.T. Gill. I re-attribute the sketch from Angas to Gill, revealing more of the collaboration between them.
ANALYSIS & CATALOGUE | December 2023
1846. The Camel, Horrocks's Expedition, Gill's Parting Supper and a Newspaper Reporter
In July 1846 Gill gave a supper for friends before leaving on John Horrocks' expedition, this being the subject of an oddly lengthy newspaper report. Featuring Australia's first camel, a dubious newspaper reporter and unidentified expeditioners.
NARRATIVE | December 2023
S.T. Gill - 1847 Exhibition of Pictures
February 1847. 'An Exhibition of Pictures, principally the work of Colonial Artists' ran over a week from Thursday 11 February and showed 178 pictures. Gill was the most prolific exhibitor with 62 entries, including his 33 work Horrocks series, and two anachronistic views of Port Adelaide!
NARRATIVE, ANALYSIS & CATALOGUE | November 2023
Book Review : Doug Limbrick (2023) on S.T. Gill
"But on reaching the final appendix I found extensive plagiarism. This took the book beyond being merely derivative and I decided to review it after all."
BOOK REVIEW | October 2023
S.T. Gill and the Portraits of J.A. Horrocks
1840. Two portraits of John Ainsworth Horrocks known only by early black and white photographs. I attribute them to Gill and date them to early 1840.
CATALOGUE & ANALYSIS | October 2023
S.T. Gill and Horrocks Retrospectives
S.T. Gill accompanied John Ainsworth Horrocks' small expedition from July to September 1846. This article has a selection of retrospective works on the subject that are outside the scope of Gill's South Australian period catalogue.
SUBJECT & ANALYSIS | October 2023
1848. Second exhibition of artists. Economic depression in Britain impacted Gill's moneyed clients. But year end heralded a broader market for Gill's works with the arrival in Adelaide of lithographers Penman and Co. Works by Conrad Martens but attributed to E.L. Montefiore.
NARRATIVE, ANALYSIS & CATALOGUE | June 2023
S.T. Gill, March 1850 to March 1851
March 1850 to March 1851. Changing fortunes. Prospect House; Gill's Newfoundland dog; competition from oil painters; portraits from Daguerreotypes; Gill's hand injury; financial pressure; William Vansittart's horse portraits.
NARRATIVE & CATALOGUE | November 2022
S.T. Gill, September 1849 to February 1850
Fetes and house paintings. Following success with the Heads of the People lithographs with Penman & Co., Gill embraced lithography and its larger market, whilst continuing watercolours for clients.
NARRATIVE & CATALOGUE | October 2022
S.T. Gill, looking east | May to December 1851
Gold dominated interest from May 1851. This article covers the period from then up to December 1851. During this time George French Angas leaves Adelaide, paints the New South Wales diggings, then returns at year's end. Gill lithographs Adelaide street scenes, becomes insolvent and makes portraits of race horses. All the while people are looking to the east and gold.
NARRATIVE & CATALOGUE | June 2022
S.T. Gill – Subject – Mount Gambier
The Mount Gambier pictures of S.T. Gill and George French Angas. I re-attribute "Blue Lake" (a title misnomer) from Angas to Gill.
ANALYSIS | June 2022
S.T. Gill and Burra Burra Mine 1847
In April 1847 S.T. Gill sketched the Burra Burra Mine and its township Kooringa on behalf of the South Australian Mining Association (SAMA). He made seven views – three above-ground and four below-ground – for SAMA's board room. The pictures were well received and several SAMA proprietors ordered "copy" sets.
NARRATIVE, CATALOGUE & MAP | May 2022
S.T. Gill and Burra Burra Mine 1850
Having painted seven views of Burra Burra Mine in April 1847 for the South Australian Mining Association (SAMA), S.T. Gill returned to refresh the views in February 1850. The updated scenes highlight new developments – the Patent Copper Company's smelting works and Roach's engine-house with its Cornish beam engine. Gill made three up-to-date above-ground views.
NARRATIVE, CATALOGUE & MAP | May 2022
S.T. Gill, Penman & Co., Heads of the People
John Penman, William Galbraith and James Campbell arrived in South Australia in December 1848. Lithography in Adelaide took off with their impetus and that of S.T. Gill. In 1849 Gill, with Penman & Co., published three sets of humorous lithographs called "Heads of the People". In all there were 22 profile portraits on five paper sheets.
NARRATIVE & CATALOGUE | March 2022
S.T. Gill's Horrocks Expedition Pictures 1846-1847
S.T. Gill accompanied John Ainsworth Horrocks' small expedition from July to September 1846. This article focusses on the period from Gill's return and the series of 33 watercolours Gill hung in the February 1847 Exhibition of Pictures. The article is complemented by an interactive map placing the works on the expedition route.
NARRATIVE, ANALYSIS, CATALOGUE & MAP | February 2022
S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes – Mr Bishop, 1849
Ten wash drawings of South Australian scenes – natural, Aboriginal and rural – likely for Captain John Bishop of Port Lincoln in 1849.
CATALOGUE | February 2022
S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes – Bennett
S.T. Gill executed several sets of wash drawings of South Australian scenes. This is the earliest known of these sets, for J.F. Bennett, author of "Historical and descriptive account of South Australia ..." published in 1843. The set and the book are in NLA's Nan Kivell collection. Gill seems to have taken inspiration from Bennett's book for these and later works.
NARRATIVE & CATALOGUE | February 2022
S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes – January 1849
Twelve wash drawings of South Australian scenes – natural, Aboriginal and rural – likely for Captain E.C. Frome, Surveyor General and Colonial Engineer, in January 1849, just before his departure for England.
CATALOGUE | February 2022
S.T. Gill – Subject – Sturt's Departure 1844
S.T. Gill made several pictures from two distinct view points of Charles Sturt's expedition departure on 10 August 1844. AGSA's grand panorama is perhaps Adelaide's most recognised Gill painting. I unpick its mystery and make sense of the versions. This article shows Gill in this case was not so much an on-the-spot documenter as a purposeful artist for his clients.
ANALYSIS & CATALOGUE | December 2021
S.T. Gill and George French Angas, 1844-1845
George French Angas spent 11 months in South Australia in 1844 and 1845. The June 1845 artists controversy, Gill re-attributions, scene figures identified including Angas and Governor George Grey.
NARRATIVE, ANALYSIS, CATALOGUE | November 2021
George French Angas in London and S.T. Gill
Some of S.T. Gill's pictures were used by George French Angas in London in 1846-1847 – in his Egyptian Hall exhibition and in his books South Australia Illustrated and Savage Life and Scenes.
ANALYSIS | November 2021
S.T. Gill – Subject – Native Sepulchre
S.T. Gill portrayed the Aboriginal elevated mortuary platform in his "Native Sepulchre" images over many years. Examines the historical context of these images and others by contemporary South Australian colonial artists. Resolves the confusion over location near the Lower Murray or Myponga. Shows artistic interest quickly detached from original context and shifted towards genre.
ANALYSIS & NARRATIVE | November 2021
S.T. Gill, E.J. Eyre and "Symmetry", 1844
In 1844, E.J. Eyre sailed for England aboard the ship Symmetry. Planning to publish his "Journals of expeditions of discovery ...", he took with him paintings by S.T. Gill illustrative of his time as Resident Magistrate and Protector of Aborigines on the Murray River at Moorunde.
NARRATIVE & CATALOGUE | September 2021
S.T. Gill and John Napier Magill
Lieutenant John Napier Magill (1819-1848), 96th Regiment, posted to South Australia 1842-1846. Magill was a flautist and artist, painting views of Flinders Street barracks. He bought several Gill watercolours.
NARRATIVE & CATALOGUE | November 2021
S.T. Gill and the Old Colonists' Festival Dinner, March 1851
The story behind S.T. Gill's cheeky lithograph of the Old Colonists' Festival Dinner, March 1851.
NARRATIVE & CATALOGUE | September 2021
S.T. Gill's many paintings of the city of Adelaide are included in this online interactive map of 1840s Adelaide. Move around the
map and see how Gill and contemporary artists pictured the city – largely before photography. This is the busiest of the Gill maps.
(Ongoing.)
MAP | May 2021
S.T. Gill and James Allen, 1845
S.T. Gill's largest single commission was from newspaperman and his father's coreligionist, James Allen (1806-1886).
NARRATIVE, ANALYSIS, CATALOGUE | August 2021
The Gill pictures of Captain E.C. Frome, Surveyor General and Colonial Engineer.
CATALOGUE | September 2021
S.T. Gill and Sturt's "Narrative"
Charles Sturt's "Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia ..." describes his 1844-1846 Great Northern Expedition plus South Australia as it was in 1847. A catalogue and interactive historical map of the book plates & watercolours. Look out for the wedge-tailed eagle.
CATALOGUE & MAP | July 2021
S.T. Gill and Art History's Wrong Turn
JOHN ROWE 1847. In 1932 the National Library of Australia acquired a series of beautiful watercolours by S.T. Gill known as
The Seasons and The Months. The paintings came with a gilded red Morocco label that was a mystery then and has remained so until
now. Solving this mystery overturns the last 35 years of art history's dating of Gill's earliest Australian works.
ANALYSIS | April 2021
ABC Adelaide : Interactive, 'street-level view' brings colonial Adelaide to life
It isn't quite Google 'street view', but for an interactive look at what Adelaide was like in the 1840s, a newly released online map offers a close alternative. Created by retired systems developer David Coombe, the map draws predominantly from the paintings of colonial artist Samuel Thomas (S.T.) Gill.
IN THE NEWS | May 2021
S.T. Gill's The Seasons and The Months
The previously untold story of Lieutenant John Roe, his likely visit to the 1847 exhibition of artists and his quest for a momento
of his posting to South Australia. This article recovers the fascinating historical context for Gill's beautiful watercolour series,
The Seasons and The Months.
NARRATIVE & CATALOGUE | April 2021
S.T. Gill's Series of Adelaide Views
Postcards Home? S.T. Gill produced simple postcard sized wash drawings illustrating the built environment of Adelaide and the Port, labelling them "Series of Adelaide Views". They probably found a market as mementoes to be sent back to England. A likely modest income stream for the artist. Features one of Gill's earliest colonial pictures.
ANALYSIS & CATALOGUE | June 2021
S.T. Gill and George Hamilton's Breeches
Conflict. Harmony. 1847. Five delightful vignettes by S.T. Gill in the National Library show activities of Aboriginal people.
This article recovers historical context, revealing these watercolours to be for George Hamilton who over-painted two
of them. I consider the contrast between these paintings and Hamilton's
contemporary sketches of frontier conflict.
ANALYSIS & CATALOGUE | May 2021
S.T. Gill painted many scenes that can be geographically located. Place and time supply context to a picture.
A complete list of map components of the space and time machine for 1840s South Australia. (Ongoing.)
With notes on historical mapping.
MAPS | May 2021
Gill painted (and repainted) Port Adelaide in the 1840s. This article is a detailed
examination of the Port Adelaide pictures by Gill and some other contemporary artists. It sets Gill's artworks in place and time,
presents these in an interactive map and resolves the question of the original artist for the "Port Adelaide" plate in George French Angas'
"South Australia Illustrated".
ANALYSIS & MAP | November 2020
The wash drawing Race Course, Adelaide is the main cause of the confusion between the pictures of E.L. Montefiore and S.T. Gill.
My recent examination of this picture reveals what's hidden beneath the signature. This article clears up confused
attributions and provides evidence that Montefiore was Gill's art student.
ANALYSIS & CATALOGUE | December 2020 - November 2021
This article and interactive map adds to our historical understanding of S.T. Gill's 1849 and 1850 pictures of Prospect House ("Graham's Castle").
This is another part of the place and time machine. Stand on the roof and scan the horizon – Hindmarsh to the southwest and Port Adelaide to the northwest. Identifies possibly the only picture of the Hand & Heart Inn.
MAP & CATALOGUE | March 2021
I was curious, brave and comparatively ignorant when I started this Gill adventure with a blog in 2016.
10 episodes in 100 days coinciding with the exhibition –
History Controversy adds Intrigue to Colonial Art Exhibition
Was the ARTIST a FORGER?
FREE SETTLER or CONVICT?
David Coombe, 2021-2025. Updated 5 October 2025. | text copyright (except where indicated)
CITE THIS: David Coombe, 2021-2025, Samuel Thomas (S.T.) Gill (1818-1880), colonial artist, accessed dd mmm yyyy, <https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/>