Educational Value Statement: Colonial life in art

'Colonial life in art' is a fascinating collection of oil paintings, watercolours, drawings and lithographs by 19th-century Australian artists. There are portraits, miniatures, landscapes and scenes of rural and city life as well as representations of significant events. The images, displayed chronologically, provide a view of life in the Australian colonies. The picture trail features work by some of Australia's most celebrated colonial artists, whose varying styles and emphases were influenced by their work in other mediums such as engraving and cartooning.

• The works in this picture trail present a valuable and colourful record of people, places and events. Australian colonial art is valued both for its aesthetic appeal and for the primary source material it provides for students, researchers and historians. It is displayed in public institutions throughout Australia and frequently reproduced in books.
• Viewed chronologically, the trail shows changing depictions of Australia. Early paintings are romanticised idyllic views with lush tidy farms and pleasant weather. Soft colours and light that enhances the environment's natural beauty feature in landscapes. People are depicted living an orderly peaceful existence. These images contrast with later depictions of sunburnt countryside and crowded dirty cities. The later paintings are harsher, but more realistic.
• Colonial paintings served a variety of purposes in addition to their aesthetic value. Some were of major importance in providing information for people in England, containing detailed depictions of events, settlements, animals and botanical subjects. Others conveyed positive images to encourage and reassure families or future settlers. Miniatures were carried by travellers and immigrants, much as we would use photographs today.
• In colonial times, commissioning paintings was popular among those who could afford to do it. They were usually prominent citizens such as landowners and business people, and the subjects were generally portraits of the commissioner, their families and their homes. In their paintings the artists included commonly understood symbols of wealth, class and education such as expensive clothing, furniture and books to emphasise the status of the sitters.
• Colonial artists often interpreted and recorded important happenings in the life of the colonies, representing their perspectives. The trail includes paintings of newsworthy events such as Captain Bligh's arrest, the funeral of Phillip Parker King, early European explorations and the turning of the turf for the first colonial railway. Several pictures feature the role played by the military and police, including a round up of Indigenous people.
• Depictions of Indigenous people by colonial artists reflected commonly held perceptions of the time. Paintings such as 'Corroboree' and 'Drawings of Aboriginal Australians' recorded traditional life and practices while appealing to the curiosity of the British public. Others show Indigenous people in European dress, or living beside colonial communities, suggesting in the colonists' view that harmony with European settlers was possible if Indigenous people adopted their customs.