Knud Geelmuyden Bull (10 September 1811 – 23 December 1889) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

painter and counterfeiter. He studied as a painter, was convicted for printing false bank notes, and was deported from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

to Australia during 1846. He lived in Australia the remainder of his life, becoming a significant artistic painter there.

Background

Bull was born in Norway in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

, a son of pharmacist Johan Storm Bull and his wife Anna Dorothea Borse Geelmuyden. He was a brother of violinist Ole Bull and architect

Georg Andreas Bull Georg Andreas Bull (26 March 1829 – 1 February 1917) was a Norwegian architect and chief building inspector in Christiania (now Oslo) for forty years. He was among the major architects in the country, and performed surveying studies and arche ...

. He was an uncle of

Edvard Hagerup Bull Edvard Hagerup Bull (23 January 1855 – 25 March 1938) was a Norwegian jurist and assessor of the Supreme Court of Norway. He was a member of the Norwegian Parliament and government official with the Conservative Party of Norway. Background Ed ...

, Schak Bull and Henrik Bull, a granduncle of Sverre Hagerup Bull and a second cousin of

Johan Randulf Bull Johan Randulf Bull (29 April 1749 – 28 February 1829) was a Norwegian judge. He was born in Stod, as the brother of Johan Lausen Bull. He took the jurist examination in Copenhagen in 1778, and was a member of ''Det Norske Selskab'' there. ...

and

Anders Sandøe Ørsted Bull Anders Sandøe Ørsted Bull (13 September 1817 – 15 April 1907) was a Norwegian civil servant and government minister. He served as acting Minister of the Army in 1875 (twice), 1881 and 1884. He also served as mayor of Oslo in 1877 and 1878. Ba ...

. He studied painting with J. C. Dahl in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

from 1833 to 1834.

Deportation to Australia

While visiting Great Britain in 1845, Bull was caught for having prepared equipment for printing false bank notes. In a trial at the Central Criminal Court in London during December 1845 he was sentenced to fourteen years deportation to Australia. He left Great Britain in May 1846, in the prison ship ''John Calvin''. He was given an opportunity to paint during the journey, and among his products were the paintings ''The Wreck of the Waterloo at Cape Town in 1842'' (1846, The Mitchell Library, Sydney) and ''Aboard the John Calvin in the N.E. Trades near Madeira'' (1846, privately owned, Australia). He came to Norfolk Island in September 1846, and was transferred to the

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...

Saltwater River, Tasmania in 1847. He spent several years in Hobart from 1849 and was finally released from custody during 1853.

Painting career in Australia

There were few painters in Australia at the time, and Bull was the only professional landscape painter in Hobart. During the 1850s he was a teacher at the William Slade Smith Academy, and also painted local landscapes, and is noted for his scenes of early colonial Hobart. Bull is regarded as a pioneer of Australian landscape painting and is represented in several major galleries in Australia. Among his paintings are ''Henry Chapman (1854, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery), ''Hobart Town and Mount Nelson'' (1854, Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts) and ''Sunrise'' (1856, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) . Bull also created historical paintings, such as ''The Wreck of the George III'' (1850) which is now displayed in the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

at Canberra.

Personal life

He married Mary Ann Bryen (1837–1879) in Hobart,

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, in 1852. He died in December 1889 in Sydney, Australia. He had five sons who all became painters, except one who died as a 2-year old.

Biography

* Ragnar Kvam: ''Straffen'' (1999)

References