S.T. Gill – A Miscellany

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• Puzzle of Provenance – W.A. Bell – NLA 1932

Puzzle of Provenance – W.A. Bell – NLA 1932

In 1932 in London, the National Library of Australia (NLA) acquired two sets of Gill pictures from a W.A. Bell:

• Wash Drawings (R107 to R118) for James Allen in 1845 and
• The Seasons and The Months for Lieutenant John Roe in 1847 .

In April 2021, I revealed the client for The Seasons and The Months was Lieutenant John Roe (in the above link) and also in S.T. Gill and Art History's Wrong Turn.

NLA in correspondence (10 May 2021) explained:

Unfortunately, Bell's first two names are not specified, but his address was given as 59 Stonard Road, Palmers Green, London, N. 13. Bell approached Australia House in 1932 with an offer to sell the artworks. He stated that the drawings came into his possession via his deceased mother-in-law, who was related to the family of John Rowe. Staff at the time though that Rowe may have been a pastoralist who commissioned Gill to create some of these works, which then passed by descent through the family.

However, as one set of works was for James Allen and the other for John Roe, it would be unlikely that Bell's mother-in-law was related to both! It seems more likely that Bell was a collector, dealer or middle man.

For Lieutenant John Roe this was a momento of his posting to South Australia. One would expect, later Major-General, John Roe to have kept it for life. He died in 1898. For more on Roe, see The Seasons and The Months | Postscript: John Roe.

I previously considered the purpose of the Allen wash drawings (R107 to R118) and where they may have been between 1845 and 1932. Allen himself may have kept them and some time later they were taken to England as family inheritance. More likely is that Allen may have left them with the South Australian Company in London in 1847, along with the watercolours, after finishing his promotional tour.

Two of the Allen wash drawings were used as sources for fake watercolours. An explanation for this may lie in an 1889 visit Sir E. T. Smith made to see the Company's art collection. Had he brought back photographs to South Australia? Could someone have bought the Allen washes? For more, see S.T. Gill - Scott Fakes and Adelaide Signatures | Summary: Sourcing Content.

In 1931, the South Australian Company in London gave South Australia's gallery many of the 1845 watercolours for James Allen. So perhaps at that time both the Allen watercolours and wash drawings were with the Company. And Bell somehow obtained the wash drawings from the Company.

I think W.A. Bell is likely Wilson Alexander Bell (1893-1945). Schooled in Classics, Bell was a headmaster in Northern Ireland, at Sullivan Upper School from 1927 to 1931, then at Down High School from 1933, leaving 1932 as a gap in his career. He died in 1945.

References:

1. Trevor J.I. Gray, 2005, The History of Bangor Grammar School, accessed 12 April 2021, <http://grammarians.co.uk/about-the-grammarians/history-of-bgs/> Chapter 9, 1923-1947. Now (September 2025) available at Internet Archive <https://web.archive.org/web/20210418051456/http://grammarians.co.uk/about-the-grammarians/history-of-bgs/> and <https://web.archive.org/web/20240314080218/https://grammarians.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/BGS_History_CHAPTER9.pdf>.
2. Personal correspondence, Sullivan Upper School, 12 April 2021.