Klemzig, Angas, a German Hay Wagon and Chickens

Contents

In this article ...

• Introduction
• Nixon on Klemzig | May 1842
• Klemzig – A Pencil Sketch | NLA R6521
• Klemzig View: Versions and Content
  • Nixon's Etching
  • From Pencil to Watercolour
• Staffage
  • German Hay Wagon
  • A Goat
  • Chickens and a Rooster
• Angas Exhibition | June 1845
• Conclusion
  • And Bethany?
• References
• Notes
• List of Works

Introduction

In this article I analyse a pencil sketch of the main street of Klemzig, a village of German settlers, just three miles from North Adelaide. I also examine the Klemzig pictures of Frederick Robert Nixon in Twelve Views of Adelaide and George French Angas in plate 12 of his South Australia Illustrated (SAI).

For more background, see my earlier articles on Gill's work for Angas: S.T. Gill and George French Angas, 1844-1845 and George French Angas in London and S.T. Gill.

There will be considerable focus on a German hay wagon, a rooster and a few chickens. Let's see if I'm clutching at straws in a chook house!

Nixon on Klemzig | May 1842

Under his nom-de-plume N R F, F R Nixon wrote about Klemzig in the May-June 1842 edition of James Allen's South Australian Magazine in the first of a series titled "A Ride Through South Australia".¹

As travelling in all countries is much improved in its pleasure by having a companion, I am to suppose myself thus provided. Another auxiliary – and not the least either – are a couple of good horses, a week's allowance of the substantial of life, and, in your breast pocket, a small sketch-book. Without these you had better stay at home...

Soon after leaving [Walkerville], you reach Klemzig – its name telling it is a German village. This again is another pretty spot, but wearing altogether a different aspect to that we have passed; nothing English here – even from the picturesque kirk down to the pony cart, all is different. In building the village, the people appear to have previously made a series of plans and sketches, by which their houses should be placed and formed; all is regular, and, at the same time, (though perhaps rather paradoxical,) extremely simple and picturesque. Again, in the dress and looks of the people themselves, there's something certainly much more suited to a picture, or what an artist would select, and anything of the kind we might seek for among our own common-place commercial-looking countrymen. This is the same with their very carriages, their harness, their mode of driving. Much money and labour has been bestowed upon the land upon which this village stands, and it is to be regretted, that it will, ere long, be abandoned by its present inhabitants, another town having been commenced in Lyndoch Valley.

Surely Nixon then and there would have drawn this picturesque scene in his pocket sketchbook? He certainly thought it worth engraving three years later. It's an intriguing possibility that his companion on this artistic country tour was S T Gill, although there is no specific evidence for this.

Klemzig (German Village on the Torrens) | National Library of Australia S1168

F.R. Nixon's Twelve Views, &c., 1845. This is dated February 1845 by Nixon in the picture, though this is likely the date of engraving, rather than the exact date of the scene. (It's interesting that many of Nixon's twelve views are very like Gill views of the same scenes, suggesting they may have sketched together at times.)

Klemzig – A Pencil Sketch | NLA R6521

The focus of this article is a pencil sketch of Klemzig's main street. The similarity between this and Nixon's view is immediately obvious.

Klemzig village, South Australia | National Library of Australia R6521

This pencil sketch is in George French Angas' "Sketchbook no. 3" in the National Library of Australia. It is clearly the source for Plate 12 in Angas's South Australia Illustrated. It's no surprise then that this (albeit unsigned) sketch is (at the time of writing) attributed to Angas.

However I will argue that it is indeed by Samuel Thomas Gill.

Let's start with the sketch as a physical object. Angas' "Sketchbook no. 3" has pages of varying texture and colours such as white, grey, lemon and brown. All were once bound but are now loose. A water stain also shows these pages were once together. With its multicoloured pages and embossed binding, the book itself is similar to others of Angas and of another contemporary artist.²

As to the content, the sketchbook contains mainly European sketches from Angas' tour for his earlier book "A Ramble in Malta and Sicily, in the Autumn of 1841". As for South Australian content, there is a sketch "On the Murray" dated 21 February 1861 showing camping. Apart from Klemzig, nothing else in this sketchbook is related to his South Australian visit in 1844-1845. So, when Angas arrived in South Australia this was one of his old sketchbooks.

Klemzig is on the reverse side of "Prison of Dionysius, stone quarry, Syracuse", a picture from Angas' Sicily ramble. So clearly Klemzig is not a "drop in" sheet but was drawn in Angas' old and nearly full sketchbook. So we can rule out this being a sketch in the field.

In style Klemzig contrasts with Angas' careful looking sketches of Malta and Sicily, and stands out as having been quickly sketched.

Klemzig View: Versions and Content

Turning now to the image, there are four known views of the main street of Klemzig:

1. February 1845 etching by F R Nixon
2. the pencil sketch (NLA R6521)
3. a watercolour (AGSA 721HP6)
4. the lithograph plate South Australia Illustrated (London, late 1846).

The latter two are almost identical and it's very likely the watercolour is the final source for the lithography in London.

The last three share the same subtly different viewpoint to Nixon's as well as the same view extent, and it's reasonable to conclude the watercolour (and therefore the plate) were based on the pencil sketch.

The German hay wagon is central to the latter two but is only faintly outlined in the pencil version. Why go to the trouble of sketching a scene but leave out the most prominent feature? (We will come to that.)

Nixon's Etching

We now compare in detail Nixon's etching with the pencil sketch and find several differences; in Nixon:

• the view point is more central (shifted to the right in the pencil sketch)
• the view is wider, taking in an entire extra house at left, though losing half a house at right
• the German hay wagon is less of a feature and the foreground instead has a woman with milk pails
• there are more people in the street.

Philip Jones (2021) wrote that Nixon's engraving "appears to be a direct copy of Angas's pencil drawing or finished watercolour of Klemzig" (Jones 2021, 96-99), but gave no rationale. However several factors are against this opinion.

1. Content. Nixon's picture includes extra content. (One can't copy what's not there.)
2. Opportunity. Nixon was a long time resident, surveyor and amateur artist, even writing about his artistic interest in Klemzig in the June 1842 "South Australian Magazine", well before Angas' visit to South Australia.
3. Timing. Nixon published his "Twelve Views in Adelaide" in March 1845 while Angas was in town. Nixon's portfolio for this series was reported in the newspaper less than a week after Angas' return from New Zealand.
4. Motivation. It's hard to imagine what interest Nixon would have had to copy the peripatetic Angas for just one out of twelve scenes in his series and of a location which was just down the road.
5. Absence of criticism. In June 1845 James Allen criticised Nixon's criticism of Angas, and heavily criticised Nixon's prints, but did not raise lack of originality.

The reverse, however, is possible – that the pencil sketch is based on Nixon. We will get to that.

From Pencil to Watercolour

We also consider what has changed in going from the pencil sketch to the watercolour (and plate).

1. several people are omitted – one in a doorway and a few down the street
2. a goat is added
3. a German hay wagon replaced the faint outline
4. as a matter of perspective, the wagon and it's driver are awkward and the man is dwarfed by the nearby woman.

The people in the street, the goat, the hay wagons can all be considered as picture "staffage".

Staffage

Jones observed Angas' use of "staffage", "the strategic positioning of figures to enliven or even draw attention to particular aspects of a landscape" and "often added to the vacant foreground of his preliminary sketches" (Jones 2021, 35, 74).

German Hay Wagon

The German hay wagon was one item of Angas staffage – a snippet he could place in an appropriate scene. The pencil sketch only needed to outline the wagon because this detail already existed elsewhere. The wagon as staffage is clear from its appearance in another watercolour (NLA NK304 below) and in exactly the same orientation as Klemzig.

A Goat

There is no goat in the pencil sketch and this Angas staffage has been added to the watercolour from Angas' sketchbook "Figure studies" (below), also in exactly the same orientation.

Chickens and a Rooster

Klemzig – as realised in "South Australia Illustrated" – has three chickens and a rooster. This was a device frequently used by Gill.

Sturt's overland expedition leaving Adelaide 1844 | National Gallery of Australia 2012.1307

The foreground has two chickens and a rooster. This painting has excellent provenance from the family of George French Angas and it's very likely that Gill in fact painted this for Angas.

Interior view of stockman's hut, 1855 | National Library of Australia PIC Volume 1198 #PIC/20927/17

Gill persisted using the device of two chickens and a rooster, even viewed from indoors!

The poultry also appear in August | NLA R3299 and Hut Door | NLA NK6833/B.

The Klemzig poultry are arranged the same in the pencil sketch. (Admittedly the left one looks more hen than rooster.)

Among Angas' work, chooks only appear in Klemzig and in another SAI plate, Bethany. (There is more about Bethany below).

Angas Exhibition | June 1845

In June 1845, Angas held an exhibition of his pictures in Adelaide. His advertisement specifically excluded "views in the neighbourhood of Adelaide".

The proposed Exhibition will not include various views in the neighbourhood of Adelaide, and a number of other landscapes, which want of time previously to the intended exhibition, has prevented Mr Angas from completing, but which have been reserved to be finished with particular care.³

Was Klemzig among those not shown? Certainly no pictures of the Adelaide neighbourhood were mentioned in the newspaper.

Conclusion

I have previously argued that Gill painted several pictures on behalf of Angas for South Australia Illustrated; Klemzig appears to be another.

For background, see my earlier article on Gill's work for Angas: S.T. Gill and George French Angas, 1844-1845 | Interpretation: "Ghost Artist" Commission and Unsigned Works. There's sound evidence Gill collaborated as a ghost artist for Angas.

So, what about this pencil sketch? The use of the old sketchbook (so not a field sketch), the presence of Gill's chooks (and absence of Angas' goat) and the rapidity of sketching make it more likely Gill drew Klemzig.

Gill hasn't sketched the streetscape from memory, but probably from Nixon's engraving (or perhaps one of Gill's own (unknown) pictures). (That Nixon also sketched Klemzig is unsurprising given the similarites in subjects covered by Nixon and Gill. See F.R. Nixon's Twelve Views, &c., 1845.)

It's not hard to imagine Gill and Angas in conversation in Adelaide about South Australia Illustrated. In 1845 Gill was the 27-year-old professional artist, and Angas the 23-year-old keen to make his own path. And Angas wanting a Klemzig illustration like Nixon's. And Gill quickly pencilling it on a spare page in Angas' old sketchbook. Gill zoomed in and shifted the view to create a stronger sense of being in the scene. There is a hint of Gill as art master. "Your hay wagon goes here as the point of focus – see these three axes? This is meant to be a cock and hens here. And you can add your goat if you wish."

This conclusion is consistent with the subsequent Angas-Nixon-Gill (NRF) controversy and reference to Gill's under-appreciation and rapidity of execution: S.T. Gill and George French Angas, 1844-1845 | Rising Resentment.

What of the Klemzig watercolour? I think it's likely painted by Angas and based on a combination of Gill's pencil sketch and Angas' German hay wagon and staffage. The perspective problems are Angas's. It's very likely the watercolour is the final source for the London lithography. Given how busy Angas was, he probably painted it after leaving Adelaide and possibly in London.

This conclusion now has Gill being identified as the originating artist for all the Adelaide and Port built environment plates in South Australia Illustrated.

(I have updated my article on Gill's work for Angas: S.T. Gill and George French Angas, 1844-1845 to include Klemzig.)

And Bethany?

One question remains as a result of this analysis. What significance is there in Bethany's cock and two hens – a trademark Gill device? Did Gill have a role in creating this landscape? Or did Angas just admire Gill's poultry device and add it to his own staffage repertoire?

Note: I visited AGSA in June 2025 and viewed the Bethany works 721HP8 (shown below) and 667G96. In doing so I'm able to correct my earlier thoughts which were based on their online catalogue images. 667G96 appears incorrectly in the online catalogue (at the time of writing) by carrying the image of 721HP8. 667G96 is actually Plate 60 of "South Australia Illustrated".

The lithograph's fowl hint at Gill as the original artist of the Bethany view. This is supported by Gill's visit to the Barossa Valley from 29 October to 4 November 1844, hosted by George French's brother John Howard Angas. The latter diarises on 29 October: "Out with Mr Gill the artist who has come from town to take some sketches." And on 1 November he notes their visit to Bethany (Grandison, 1991).

For more see:

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".

References

Grandison, 1991

Jones, 2021

Tregenza, 1982

Notes

• 1. "A Ride Through South Australia No. 1". The South Australian magazine, No. 9 (May and June 1842) <https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1988478354/view?partId=nla.obj-1988496815#page/n38/mode/1up>
• 2. James Cumming sketchbook one. NLA PIC Volume 1189/1-3 #PIC/20101/1-74-James Cumming sketchbooks, 1849-1861 <https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3132939893/view>
• 3. Adelaide Observer, 14 June 1845: 1. <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article158920370>