Title
Aboriginal family group
(circa 1886)
Artist
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Details
- Other Titles
- Gib it bacca Boss
Give blackfellow tobacco boss! - Place where the work was made
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Kiama
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New South Wales
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Australia
- Date
- (circa 1886)
- Media category
- Watercolour
- Materials used
- pencil, watercolour, white gouache
- Dimensions
- 38.0 x 25.3 cm sheet
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r., "J.R. Ashton 188 (illeg.)".
- Credit
- Purchased 1888
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 19
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Julian Ashton
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Julian Ashton was born in England and studied at the Royal Academy School, London, and at the Académie Julian, Paris, before coming to Australia in 1878 to work for the 'Illustrated Australian News' and 'Australasian Sketcher' in Melbourne. He moved to Sydney in 1883 to work on 'The picturesque atlas of Australasia'. Ashton was a major influence on the appreciation and teaching of art in Sydney, establishing his own art school, which still operates today. He was President of the Art Society of NSW and a trustee of the AGNSW.
According to his autobiography, 'Now came still evening on' (1941) pg 53 Ashton visited an Aboriginal camp some miles out of Kiama on the south coast of NSW, where he remembered seeing "a fine looking native and his two lubras… They lived in a little construction something like an Indian wigwam. They had two children – a boy of about six years and the other just out of babyhood. I persuaded the father to allow me to make a drawing of them. He stood with his hand out and holding the younger child in his arms."
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Exhibition history
Shown in 8 exhibitions
Australian Artists' Association Inaugural Exhibition 1886, Buxton's Art Gallery, Melbourne, 07 Sep 1886–Unknown
Exhibition of Australian art in London (1898), Grafton Galleries, London, 02 Apr 1898–31 Jul 1898
The Australian Aborigine Portrayed in Art: Adelaide Festival of Arts 1974, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Mar 1974 -
Australian images: Prints, drawings and watercolours from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Dec 1979–28 Jan 1980
Julian Ashton, S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, 14 Nov 1981–31 Jan 1982
Nineteenth century Australian watercolours from the collection (1991), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 13 Apr 1991–07 Jul 1991
Everyday Life, prints, drawings and watercolours from the collections of Australian and European Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 01 Oct 1994–27 Nov 1994
Everyday Life, prints, drawings and watercolours from the collections of Australian and European Art, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, , 04 Mar 1995–01 Apr 1995
Everyday Life, prints, drawings and watercolours from the collections of Australian and European Art, Griffith Regional Art Gallery, , 03 May 1995–03 Jun 1995
Everyday Life, prints, drawings and watercolours from the collections of Australian and European Art, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Australia, 22 Jun 1995–30 Jul 1995
A Nation Imagined: The Artists of the Picturesque Atlas, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 12 Mar 2021–11 Jul 2021
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Bibliography
Referenced in 14 publications
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Julian Ashton, Now came still evening on, Sydney, 1941, 53-54, opp. 126 (illus.). titled 'Gib it bacca Boss'
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Jane de Teliga, Australian images: Prints, drawings and watercolours from the collection, Sydney, 1979, 1.
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Geoffrey Dutton, The Art Gallery of South Australia Festival Exhibitions 1974, 'The Australian Aboriginal portrayed in art', pg. 34-41, Adelaide, 1974, 40. cat.no. 53; titled 'Gib it bacca Boss'
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Dinah Dysart, Julian Ashton 1851-1942, Sydney, 1982, 13. cat.no. 20
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Grafton Galleries, Exhibition of Australian art in London, London, 1898. cat.no. 129
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Hendrik Kolenberg, Nineteenth century Australian watercolours from the collection, Sydney, 1991. cat.no. 2
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Hendrik Kolenberg, Everyday life: prints drawings and watercolours from the collections of Australian and European art, Sydney, 1994.
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1893, Sydney, 1893, 110 (illus.). cat.no. 402, Australian Court
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1888, Sydney, 1888, 78 (illus.). cat.no. 104, Watercolours, titled 'Gib it bacca Boss'
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1891, Sydney, 1891, 69 (illus.). cat.no. 257, Australian Court
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1899, Sydney, 1899. cat.no. 479 Water Colours- Australian
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Ian North (Editor), The Adelaide Festival of Arts 1974: Special exhibitions at the Art Gallery of South Australia, The Australian Aborigine Portrayed in Art, p35-41, Adelaide, 1974. cat. no. 53; titled 'Gib it bacca Boss'
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Author Unknown, Australian Artists Association Inaugural Exhibition, 1886, (illus.). titled 'Give blackfellow tobacco boss'.
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Argus, 'Exhibition of the Australian Artists' Assocation', page 7, Melbourne, 07 Sep 1886, 7. titled 'Give Blackfellow Terbacker, Boss'
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