david coombe history
About the S.T. Gill 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.
In this article ...
Since 2016 I've been studying arguably Australia's most recognisable colonial artist – Samuel Thomas Gill (1818 - 1880). Recognised if not by name then by his many pictures used for historical illustration.
My focus here is on Gill's 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. This is a little bit further on in time than the reference work S.T. Gill, the South Australian years 1839-1852 (Appleyard, Fargher, Radford, 1986).
My original research supplements earlier work by Gill authorities – Sasha Grishin; Ron Appleyard, Barbara Fargher and Ron Radford; Keith Macrae Bowden and others. (See References.) However I diverge in particular from Appleyard and Radford in their dating and subsequent conclusions.
I've taken advantage of digitised sources and compiled and analysed data, wanting to illuminate an historical angle.
While this project attempts a narrative, its main strength is as an historical reference work. When complete, it will be a select catalogue of S.T. Gill's early colonial works from his arrival in South Australia at the end of 1839 up to his early time at the Victorian gold rush in 1852-53.
I came to this research interest through the 2016 exhibition S.T. Gill & his Audiences at the State Library of Victoria (SLV) and the National Library of Australia (NLA) curated by Professor Sasha Grishin who also authored the accompanying book. For those wanting an overview and appreciation of Gill's work and life I highly recommend Grishin's book.
My interest was particularly stirred by the controversial claim by the late scholar Babette Smith that Gill was a convict and not a free settler – a claim refuted by Grishin. I thought I had sufficient research skills to explore the controversy. Bravely and naïvely I embarked on a ten part blog coinciding with the Canberra leg of the exhibition. It turned out the convict argument was unsound. However by the end of the blog I'd seen gaps in our knowledge of Gill and a problem with the accepted timeline. I didn't have enough answers at the time but thought further research was warranted.
I had several reasons for revisiting the work of Appleyard, et. al:
Although I reached different conclusions to Appleyard, his 1986 book has been a significant inspiration and I have constantly referenced it throughout my research. While not claiming so, the book is something of a catalogue raisonné and I reference Appleyard numbers in my catalogue. I also took Appleyard's detailed analysis of cross-references for the James Allen commission (Appendix A) as a model for my own analytical approach.
By extending my scope beyond Appleyard's South Australia and into Gill's earliest Victorian gold rush images I've found ongoing South Australian connections and resolved puzzles around his intercolonial move.
By necessity my research also embraces artistic contemporaries of Gill such as George French Angas (1822-1886), William Anderson Cawthorne (1824-1897) and Frederick Robert Nixon (1817-1860). You'll also find related material on 1840s South Australia including interactive maps.
I expect some of my conclusions are themselves controversial – especially those around Gill and Angas.
The critical content is a select catalogue of S.T. Gill's early colonial works. This catalogue is generally confined to what is readily accessible from public collecting institutions and can be thought of as an extra online layer sitting above their catalogues – a supra-catalogue. The catalogue is supported by related analytical articles and interactive maps showing artworks in geographical and historical context.
Web page articles may be thought of as:
Interactive maps are implemented using OpenStreetMap's uMap.
(See more on Accessing Project Content below.) Accessing Project Content
In writing about the artist Samuel Thomas Gill, the challenge all have faced is an abundance of undated artworks and a lack of other primary historical sources. The most significant books on Gill (also see References) are those by:
The Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1 (1966) predated these with an article focussing on Gill's known works. E. J. R. Morgan, 'Gill, Samuel Thomas (1818-1880)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gill-samuel-thomas-2096/text2639>, published first in hardcopy 1966.
Bowden (1971) was narrative in style, blending Gill's works with social history. His book listed known works – including wash drawings – especially those in public collections. Unpublished Gill family material was the basis for information on the family. Bowden dated The Seasons and the Months to 1847.
Appleyard et al (1986) focussed on the South Australian years (1839 - 1852), supported an exhibition, and included a catalogue raisonnée and a biographical outline (5 pages plus another 5 of endnotes). The book generally excluded the wash drawings. Appleyard and Radford redated The Seasons and the Months to 1840-1842 which helped fill a chronology but was in error. (Read more: S.T. Gill and Art History's Wrong Turn.)
Grishin (2015) gave an appreciation of the artist and his art over his full lifetime. His book accompanied a comprehensive exhibition curated by the author. The chapters (in chronological order) are vignette in style. He understandably relied on Appleyard et al. for the South Australian years and so likewise placed The Seasons and the Months in 1840-1842.
This project is partly biographical, but it is not a biography. Its scope is confined to Gill's South Australian years (plus his early Victorian diggings work). The main content of this project is the Select Catalogue of Works. The catalogue can be thought of as being in chapters, each with historical context contributing to a narrative. Other chapters are narrative in style, whilst linking into the catalogue. In recovering the actual dating for The Seasons and the Months this project has a firmer basis for Gill's early biography. In this project the catalogue is the main foundation for the narrative. One purpose of this project is to add "why" to "what" and give the historical context for Gill's works and career. (See S.T. Gill – A Narrative.)
The time seemed right for a digital approach to discovery and presentation, to capitalise on the cataloguing and online availablility of the major holders of works (state and national libraries and galleries), to scour the digitised newspapers in Trove, and to incoporate interactive historical mapping.
I'm not an art historian. I'm applying scientific principles of observation, hypothesis and test; transparency and reproducibility. In the accompanying articles I present evidence, argument and opinion for others to test.
In my analysis I sometimes differ from previous authorities. Specifically I occasionally re-attribute authorship from other artists to Gill (with varying degrees of confidence). I explain the rational in these cases and note the artist as "Gill, S.T. (attr.)."
I've been building a personal research database of art works and events. I have categorised these with what may seem disparate data but which allows for dating and extraction of narrative. The database helps me place the works of Gill (and some other artists) in time, place and society. Much of the data is relational: people, places, locations, events, exhibitions, signature styles, picture devices, provenance, even theories. I interrogate the database so possible narratives can be tested, refined and extracted. The method has proved fruitful.
Gill's work was frequently topical and I've been able to recover contemporary context that's escaped memory in 180 years. I think of this as a place and time machine.
My growing research database currently has around 700 works from about a dozen collecting institutions. It includes around 3,000 dated events for context, 1,000 keywords and 12,000 keyword uses. From the database I generate presentational content for both web pages and maps.
I'm discovering details of Gill's work that bring us a deeper understanding of his career trajectory, cleverness, cheekiness, opportunism, industriousness, persistence and luck.
I am compiling an album of analytical, reference and narrative material, one online article at a time, in no particular sequence. Over time they are becoming increasingly interlinked with each other.
The narrative is currently strong from 1844 to December 1851. There is currently a gap for Gill's presence on the Horrocks expedition in July to September 1846, but this is well covered by his own diary as published in the newspaper after his return. Narrative before 1844 is hard to come by. 1852-1853 will see Gill in Victoria for the gold rush and I'm still working on this material.
The table below shows approximate catalogue progress by owner institution (works to 1851):
Although most are original works, some lithographs are included which, although may be held by multiple institutions, are listed only under one. (Updated 2025-10-05.)
| Owner | Catalogued | To be Catalogued | Other Main Listing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) | 89 | 6 | 20 |
| British Museum (BM) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Burra Regional Art Gallery (Burra RAG) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Flinders University (Flinders) | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| National Gallery of Australia (NGA) | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| National Library of Australia (NLA) | 133 | 1 | 36 |
| Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Royal Agricultural and Horticural Society of South Australia (RAHSSA) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| South Australian Museum (SAM) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) | 14 | 0 | 16 |
| Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW-DG) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW-DL) | 10 | 0 | 6 |
| Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW-M) | 17 | 0 | 25 |
| State Library of South Australia (SLSA) | 29 | 2 | 12 |
| State Library of Victoria (SLV) | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| University of Adelaide (UA) | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 304 | 10 | 131 |
See the S.T. Gill project index page for all the main articles in order of posting, beginning with the most recent.
You can also access project content by place (maps), time (catalogue of works and chronological display) or artistic subject through Indexes, Catalogue, Lists, Status, Help, including:
This project would not be possible without the digitised resources provided by the collecting institutions and the newspapers of NLA's Trove. Institutions have also been generous in letting me inspect works (especially the undigitised backs) and in sourcing information from their acquisition files (for provenance).
I am personally indebted to historian Frank Campbell who encouraged me to pursue this interest. We initially made contact over the convict controversy and Frank pursued his own angle with S.T. Gill: A Phony Controversy. Around this time Frank wrote Face value : the assassination of portrait painting by photography, 1850-1870 : Richard Noble and his circle : including a catalogue raisonné of Richard Noble. We occasionally corresponded by email, but an ISP change resulted in us losing contact. I don't think we imagined how far this interest would go. Thank you Frank!
David Coombe, 2021-2025. Updated 5 October 2025. | text copyright (except where indicated).
CITE THIS: David Coombe, 2021-2025, S.T. Gill - About the Project, accessed dd mmm yyyy, <https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/about.htm>