david coombe history
SUMMARY: S.T. Gill sketched sets of wash drawings of South Australian scenes, illustrating for an English audience the colony's notable natural characteristics, the Aboriginal people and their practices, and rural life. There are three sets drawn about five years apart. All are held by the National Library of Australia. Gill seems to have taken inspiration from J.F. Bennett's 1843 book "Historical and Descriptive Account of South Australia ...". In fact the earliest of these sets was for Bennett himself. This is an umbrella article for the three sets.
Article type: ANALYSIS & SUBJECT
S.T. Gill sketched several sets of wash drawings of South Australian scenes, illustrating for an English audience the colony's notable natural characteristics (kangaroos, emus and grass trees); the Aboriginal people and their practices (especially hunting); and rural life (particularly sheep farming). There are three sets drawn about five years apart. All are held by the National Library of Australia (NLA). Two sets include the built environment showing the same three subjects – Frome Bridge, the gaol and Port Adelaide.
The three sets all differ from Gill's Series of Adelaide Views whose subject matter is Adelaide's built environment, although clearly there is overlap (for example, the gaol).
All these pictures are in vignette style as are most of Gill's wash drawings.
The earliest, around January 1844, is S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes – Bennett.
NLA R372 to R379 (8 drawings), likely 1844 for J.F. Bennett.
The subjects are natural (kangaroos, emus), Aboriginal (hunting), rural (sheep farming) and the built environment (Frome Bridge, the gaol and Port Adelaide).
Size: about 12cm x 13cm (4¾" x 6¾").
The next set was for James Allen in the second half of 1845.
Description: Wash Drawings for James Allen (NLA R107 to R118) and Catalogue : Allen Wash Drawings.
NLA R107 to R118 (12 drawings) – for James Allen around July to November 1845.
This differs from the other two sets in its greater emphasis on colonial life and the built environment. Frome Bridge, the gaol and Port Adelaide are again subjects. There are also three significant Adelaide buildings and six images of colonial life.
Size: about 12cm x 20cm (4½" x 7¾").
The third set is from January 1849.
S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes – January 1849.
NLA NK7063/1 to NK7063/12 (12 drawings) – probably for E.C. Frome in January 1849.
The subjects are natural (kangaroos, emus), Aboriginal (six pictures) and rural (four pictures).
Size: about 16cm x 24cm (9" x 6").
J.F. Bennett's 1843 book "Historical and Descriptive Account of South Australia ..." (see S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes – Bennett) seems to have been an ongoing inspiration for Gill's typical South Australian scenes, and perhaps none more so than his Stockman (shown below).
This is an umbrella article for the three catalogue articles mentioned above. As such there are no works specific to this article. However samples from the three sets highlight a few subjects and show both transition and continuity over the five years.
You can scroll down to see all pictures along with detailed notes or click a link to jump to a specific work from the list.
Kangaroos and grass tree | National Library of Australia R372
Artist: Gill, S.T. | Date: 1844~ | Appleyard cat. n/a
Catalogue: S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes - Bennett
This picture is of distinctive Australian fauna and flora: kangaroos and grass trees.
Kangaroos are described in Bennett (1843) 44. "Bennett" is inscribed on the reverse, this being the key to the identity of this set.
Gill captioned this vignette himself and misplaced an apostrophe. He signed not "S.T.G." but "S.T. Gill" – the only known occurrence of this signature style in his South Australian period.
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Kangaroo & grass tree, So. [i.e. South] Australia, Adelaide, Jany 1849 | National Library of Australia NK7063/4
Artist: Gill, S.T. | Date: 1848-11~/1849-01 | Appleyard cat. n/a
Catalogue: S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes - January 1849
Kangaroos and grass trees (Xanthorrhoea sp.).
Gill revisits the subject of his earlier "Kangaroos and grass tree" (NLA R372) – see S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes – Bennett.
Kangaroos are described in Bennett (1843) 44.
Gill titled the work. Captioned (in a different script to the title): "Adelaide, Jan'y 1849".
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Natives hunting opposums [i.e. opossums] | National Library of Australia R375
Artist: Gill, S.T. | Date: 1844~ | Appleyard cat. n/a
Catalogue: S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes - Bennett
This is a scene with three Aboriginal people – one climbing a tree to hunt a possum, while two (clothed) wait below.
Gill captioned this vignette himself with a spelling "variation".
This is the same subject as, and is close in time to, a (now unknown) picture Gill did for Eyre's book and which resulted in the plate "Opossum-hunting near Gawler Plains, drawn by E. Gill". This subject was published in illustration as early as 1813 in "Field sports &c. &c. of the native inhabitants of New South Wales" by John Heaviside Clark. In Clark's picture the Aboriginal people are smoking out the possum, but the scene is otherwise very similar. The possum hunting theme is one oft repeated by Gill.
"... opossums, which keep in the trees, either watched at night, when they come out to feed, or they are caught in the holes of trees, where they hide during the day. Sometimes the tree is set on fire, or a fire lighted at its root, until the animals are obliged to leave their holes, and they then fall under the unerring aim of the black hunter, who, with eagle eyes, watches at the foot of the tree." Bennett (1843) 61-62. Bennett also uses a variant spelling, "oppussum", 44-45.
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Native method of climbing the trees when hunting oppossums [i.e. opossums], So. [i.e. South] Australia, Adelaide, Jany 1849 | National Library of Australia NK7063/11
Artist: Gill, S.T. | Date: 1848-11~/1849-01 | Appleyard cat. n/a
Catalogue: S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes - January 1849
This is a scene with three Aboriginal people – one climbing a tree beside a stream to hunt a possum, while two others wait below.
Gill revisits the subject of his earlier "Natives hunting opposums [i.e. opossums]" (NLA R375) – see S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes – Bennett.
Gill titled the work. Captioned (in a different script to the title): "Adelaide, Jan'y 1849".
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Frome Bridge, Adelaide, S.A. | National Library of Australia R378
Artist: Gill, S.T. | Date: 1844~ | Appleyard cat. n/a
Catalogue: S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes - Bennett
Frome Bridge on the Torrens River opened on 18 August 1842. It was located on a bend opposite Pulteney Street. In the foreground is the rocky ford below the bridge, near which is a distinctive log from flood debris. (This ford is clearly marked on Delisser's 1861 map of Adelaide.)
This was Adelaide's main watering place, however this is Gill's only version of Frome Bridge not to include a water cart. A colonist is prominent in the left foreground.
(Frome Bridge was built after J.F. Bennett left for England.)
Map | S. T. Gill - Adelaide
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F. [i.e. Frome] Bridge from W side | National Library of Australia R111
Artist: Gill, S.T. | Date: 1845-05~/1845-11 | Appleyard cat. n/a
Catalogue: S.T. Gill and James Allen, 1845
Frome Bridge on the Torrens River opened on 18 August 1842. It was located on a bend opposite Pulteney Street. In the foreground is the rocky ford below the bridge, near which is a distinctive log from flood debris. This was Adelaide's main watering place – a colonist fills a bucket, a horse drinks and a water cart departs. At right another water cart is arriving from the city to refill.
For more detail see the catalogue entry.
Map | S. T. Gill - Adelaide
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Hut & sheep pens | National Library of Australia R376
Artist: Gill, S.T. | Date: 1844~ | Appleyard cat. n/a
Catalogue: S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes - Bennett
The scene is of two shepherds (probably a man and a boy), their hut and sheep pen. A plain or valley and mountains are in the background.
The picture is captioned in light pencil below - probably not by the artist - "Hut & sheep pens".
Sheep farming is described in Bennett (1843) 96-98.
"The sheep are always driven at night into the pens, which are formed of movable hurdles, and the shepherd or hut-keeper, with his dog, sleeps in a movable box placed close to the fold. At sunrise the flock is counted out of the pens and sent out to graze, the shepherd attending them constantly until they return in the evening." Bennett (1843) 97-98.
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Interior of settler's hut | National Library of Australia R116
Artist: Gill, S.T. | Date: 1845-05~/1845-11 | Appleyard cat. n/a
Catalogue: S.T. Gill and James Allen, 1845
The hut interior is crowded with people, pets and objects. (It is a rare Gill illustration of a cat.) Perhaps less noticeable items are a short handled sickle (wall, right), possibly an almanack (wall, left) and a frame hanging above the mantlepiece. This is one of only two pictures in James Allen's wash collection with an unspecified location.
For more detail see the catalogue entry.
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Shepherd, So. [i.e. South] Australia, Adelaide, Jany 1849 | National Library of Australia NK7063/1
Artist: Gill, S.T. | Date: 1848-11~/1849-01 | Appleyard cat. n/a
Catalogue: S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes - January 1849
A shepherd smokes a pipe and leans on his gun, his dog at his feet, while watching the sheep.
"The sheep are always driven at night into the pens, which are formed of movable hurdles, and the shepherd or hut-keeper, with his dog, sleeps in a movable box placed close to the fold. At sunrise the flock is counted out of the pens and sent out to graze, the shepherd attending them constantly until they return in the evening." Bennett (1843) 97-98.
The shepherd, sheepdog and flock became an ongoing subject of Gill's. Years later he showed the shepherd asleep on the job while the dog remains watchful. "Sleeping Shepherd" was one of his 1855 "Sketches in Victoria" lithographs.
Gill titled the work. Captioned (in a different script to the title): "Adelaide, Jan'y 1849".
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Stockman, So. [i.e. South] Australia, Adelaide, Jany 1849 | National Library of Australia NK7063/3
Artist: Gill, S.T. | Date: 1848-11~/1849-01 | Appleyard cat. n/a
Catalogue: S.T. Gill's Set of South Australian Scenes - January 1849
A mounted stockman, with stock whip trailing, leaps over a log in pusuit of cattle running to his left.
[Each stockman] "is furnished with a good serviceable horse, and an immense whip, which he handles with great dexterity. The handle of the whip is only about eighteen inches long, but the lash is from ten to fourteen feet in length. Such a ponderous looking affair seems rather unwieldy in the hands of anyone but a stockman, but by him it is used with the greatest ease and effect, even when mounted, and his horse going at full gallop. In following the cattle, or searching for such as may have strayed, stockmen always go on horseback, and they are expert and fearless riders." Bennett (1843) 100.
The stockman became a frequent subject of Gill's.
The "G" of Gill's signature is reminiscent of a stock whip – this style becoming his trademark signature.
This is one of a set of twelve scenes. Could they have been intended for lithography by recently arrived Penman, Galbraith and Campbell?
Gill titled the work. Captioned (in a different script to the title): "Adelaide, Jan'y 1849".
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David Coombe, original February 2022, updated 14 March 2023. Formatted 14 February 2024. | text copyright (except where indicated)
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