''Corroboree at Newcastle'' is a painting in the collection of the
State Library of New South Wales
The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...
located in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
,
New South Wales, Australia. It is the first known European oil painting to depict a night
corroboree by
Aboriginal Australian people.
Description
Joseph Lycett was the first convict artist to broadly depict the transformation of the
Australian colony into a free settlement. Some of Lycett's most effective paintings were night scenes like this one featuring
Awabakal men at
Newcastle. In this imagined scene, Aboriginal people perform campfire
ceremonies on the banks of the
Hunter River, surrounded by
casuarinas and
mangroves, with distant Nobby's Island and the European
signal station lit up by the full moon.
Lycett has depicted a number of Indigenous activities in different parts of the canvas. In one a
tooth evulsion is taking place while under a tree a group of men are gathered around a fire sharing a clay pipe.
James Gleeson
James Timothy Gleeson (21 November 1915 – 20 October 2008) was an Australian artist. He served on the board of the National Gallery of Australia.
Early life
Gleeson was born in the Sydney district of Hornsby in 1915 and attended East Syd ...
, who attributed this painting to Captain James Wallis of the 46th Regiment, interpreted the scene by the large
gum tree to the right as a woman being beaten for intruding on an all-male ceremony.
Provenance
The painting was presented to the State Library of New South Wales by Sir
William Dixson
Sir William Dixson (18 April 1870 – 17 August 1952) was an Australian businessman, collector and benefactor who bequeathed his collection of over 20,000 items of Australiana to the State Library of New South Wales, forming the ''Dixson Librar ...
in 1938. It was probably purchased by A. H. Spencer, Hill of Content Bookshop, from the Museum Book Store,
London, on 19 August 1937, and then purchased by William Dixson in the same year.
[Lycett, J., McPhee, J., Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, National Library of Australia, & Newcastle Region Art Gallery. (2006). Joseph Lycett : Convict artist / John McPhee editor. Sydney: Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, State Library of New South Wales]
759.994
/ref>
References
{{reflist
Further reading
*Hoorn, J. (2018). Colony: Australia 1770–1861/Frontier Wars. ''Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art'', 18(2), 286-290.
*Lycett, J., McPhee, John (ed.), ''Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales'', National Library of Australia & Newcastle Region Art Gallery. (2006). Joseph Lycett: Convict artist
*Snell, T. (1991). Sense of place: Whose place? ''Australian Art Education'', 15(2), 24-29.
*Turner, John, & Lycett, J. (1997). ''Joseph Lycett: Governor Macquarie's convict artist'' Newcastle, N.S.W.: Hunter History Publications.
External links
* Lycett, J. (1824). Views in Australia, or, New South Wales & Van Diemen's Land delineated : In fifty views with descriptive letter press ... / by J. Lycett. London: J. Souter
SAFE/ F82/16
Australian paintings
Newcastle, New South Wales
1810s paintings