drawing

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Object Type
Museum number: Oc2006,Drg.19
Title: Object: Daphne from Oyster Bay V.D.L
Description: Drawing; it depicts 'Daphne' (Dromedeener), a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman, standing with her hands together. She is wearing a tartan cap, and a garment with a cloth belt and a scarf hanging from it. 1845 Graphite and watercolour
Producer name
Production date: 1845
Production place: Painted in: Wybalenna
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 23.30 centimetres; Width: 15.50 centimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: According to Robert Clark, the catechist at Flinders Island, Daphne's Aboriginal name was 'Rumptianni', meaning female wombat. See BM Pic Doc 171.; It is one of a series of twenty one portraits of Tasmanian Aboriginal people completed by Prout during a visit to the Wybalenna Aboriginal Station on Flinders Island in February and March 1845.; "Daphne born at Swan Port - lived there - left it when the white men came to it - they shot a great number of the Natives - was walking by the shore when she was taken away by the sealing men - she ran away from them some time after - Mr Robinson found her and brought her to Hobart Town." - From notes given to Prout in 1845 by Robert Clark, Catechist at Wybalenna, Flinders Island (contained in Ethdoc 915). Ethdoc 215 also contains notes on Daphne's husband 'Bonaparte': 'Bonaparte was born at Newtone [?] Bay - was grown up when the White men settled at Hobarttown - has seen the white men shoot the blacks very often - was very much afraid and ran away to Lovely Banks - remained there a long time, and then went to Pitt Water with his Chief Moteplierta - was caught by the [blank] in the rain asleep - came from thence tn the 'Shamrock' - married Daphne'.
Bibliographic references: Brown et al 1986 / Skinner Prout in Australia 1840-48; Kolenberg 1988 / Tasmanian Vision: The art of nineteenth century Tasmania: paintings, drawings and sculpture from European exploration and settlement to 1900; Bonyhady and Lehman 2018 / The National Picture The art of Tasmania's Black War (p.62)
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2018 11 May - 28 July, Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, The National Picture 2018 17 Aug - 11 Nov, Hobart, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, The National Picture
Condition: Window mounted, in good condition.
Associated names
Associated places: Associated with: Wybalenna; Associated with: Great Oyster Bay
Associated ethnic name
Acquisition name
Previous owner
Acquisition notes: In 1856 the artist John Skinner Prout sold Joseph Barnard Davis a collection of 36 of his portraits of Australian Aborigines and Maori people. After Davis's death in 1881, these portraits, along with other pictorial and ethnographic material, were acquired by the British Museum.
Department: Africa, Oceania and the Americas
Registration number: Oc2006,Drg.19
Additional IDs: Miscellaneous number: Oc2006-Drg19-Pro

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