Vivienda flexible en guadas, cundinamarca

Perhaps the best known of the early topographical artists to produce views of Van Diemen’s Land is Joseph Lycett. This artist has been subject to considerable scholarly attention, yet none of this discusses the noticeable absence of Aborigines in these views. Lycett’s Tasmanian views were published as a series of engravings in London in 1824.397 In this collection of twenty-four lithographs of New South Wales, seven include Aboriginal figures. Of the same number of Van Diemen’s Land scenes, nineteen include noticeable human figures. None of these are Aborigines. Instead, his views are populated by settlers, going about their leisure and work.

Early in this project, I discussed my significant observation with several scholars and curators. The frequent response was that this peculiarity carried no weight, as Lycett had not actually visited Tasmania. The ‘Advertisement’ for Lycett’s volume makes a different claim,

396 _{Penny Russell, 'The Brash Colonial: Class and Comportment in Nineteenth-Century} Australia', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 12/ArticleType: research-article / Full publication date: 2002 / Copyright © 2002 Royal Historical Society (2002). p. 433. 397 _{John Mcphee, 'Views of Australia', in John Mcphee (ed.), Joseph Lycett: Convict Artist}

The views may be regarded, with implicit confidence, as absolute fac-similies of scenes and places, having been taken from nature on the spot by Mr. Lycett, who resided more than ten years in the country, in the especial employ of the Governor as an Artist… (containing) every object which meets the eye of a spectator of the actual scene, whether they be such as the rude hand of Nature formed, or such as the arts of civilisation have fabricated for the use of social man.398

Lycett may have accompanied Governor Macquarie on his visit to Tasmania between April and July 1821, although John Turner399 _{discusses a lack of expected evidence to} support this, including no references in shipping, correspondence or official records. While McPhee concludes that G. W. Evans is the most likely source of original material that Lycett might have copied, he notes that no such original drawings have yet come to light to support this.400 Jeanette Hoorn also posits Evans as a potential source of the original drawings, but notes that James Taylor accompanied Macquarie as well, thereby adding another possible origin. 401 Kerr suggests Taylor as the most likely to have produced the original drawings. She notes that Taylor had returned to England at the time Lycett was preparing his views of Van Diemen’s Land for publication.402

There are notable stylistic differences between Evans’ and Lycett’s work. In particular, Lycett’s originals do not include under-drawing, while Evans’ do.

However, given Lycett’s competence as an artist, it is not difficult to imagine that he could use drawings significantly different to his own as a source of geographic and architectural information, adapting this data to his own style. As I have already discussed, John Lewin also used the work of other artists for his views of Port Dalrymple, so the practice was not uncommon.

398 _{Lycett, Views in Australia or New South Wales & Van Diemen's Land Delineated, in Fifty}

Views, with Descriptive Letter Prefs. p. ii.

399 _{John Turner, Lycett: Governor Macquarie’s Convict Artist (Newcastle, NSW: Hunter} History Publications, 1997). p. 103-5.

400 _{Mcphee, 'Van Diemen's Land Watercolours'.}

401 _{Hoorn, Australian Pastoral: The Making of a White Landscape. p. 57.}

402 _{Kerr, The Dictionary of Australian Artists : Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and}

Claims in Lycett’s publication that views were made ‘on the spot’ cannot be regarded as evidence. However, regardless of whether Lycett actually visited the island, it remains striking that his publication presents the Tasmanian colony as devoid of Natives. At the time Lycett produced several of the views, he was recorded in the details of an 1820 muster as ‘at Government labour in the Colony,’ undertaking commissioned work for Governor Macquarie, Commissioner Bigge and his Secretary Thomas Hobbes Scott. McPhee notes this work ‘as a record of the appearance of the settlement’.403 _{Lycett received a pardon in November 1821, and by August the} following year, had made passage for himself and his two daughters to London. On his return, the artist continued work on a collection of watercolours, including a number of views of Van Diemen’s Land. Known as the ‘Derby Collection’ and held by the Mitchell Library, none of these views include Aboriginal figures. However, it is notable that two engravings prepared from the artist’s Chelsea address; North view of Sydney, New South Wales, 1822, and North east view of Hobart Town, Van

Diemen’s Land, repeat the pattern observed by many other topographical artists of including Aborigines in the NSW scene, and excluding them from a comparable view in Van Diemen’s Land.

Careful examination of the deployment of these figures across the three known

versions of the Sydney scene demonstrate how Lycett made free use of the Aboriginal figures, changing their location, number and activity, even between the artist’s proof and final hand-coloured engraving of the scene. There can be little doubt therefore, that the artist’s use of Aboriginal figures was highly intentional and flexible to his desires for compositional and picturesque effect.

Lycett’s experience in depicting Aboriginal people is clear. Representations of Aboriginal people of NSW in the ‘Lycett Album’ held by the National Library of Australia contrasts significantly with other depictions of Aborigines up to that time. Rather than caricatured or grotesque, as was the habit of artists like Richard Browne (1776-1824), Lycett’s drawings are more ethnographic in their depiction of a people going about their cultural activities in a way that seems unlikely to threaten the English visitor or settler. Martin Terry records that at the time the 46th Regiment had

been despatched to ‘quell a rebellion’ of Native Blacks who ‘broke out in Open Hostility against the British Settlers’. Captain Wallis’ grenadiers had been responsible for killing 14 Aborigines in the process. Lycett’s task, according to Terry was to support the reputation of Captain Wallis, commander of the town of Newcastle, as ‘a benign administrator’ who had succeeded in establishing a regime that was ‘settled and in order’. All of this was intended to impress the Governor with a sense of tranquillity.

The message of the album is that Awabakal people have been left alone and they look after themselves. There is no begging or need for blankets. They hunt and fish as they have always done.404

A comparison of Lycett’s View of Port Macquarie, a location north of Newcastle, and

View on the River Tamar, north of Hobart, is instructive in this regard (see fig. 58). Both these views are of locations at some distance from the colonial centre where the danger of Aboriginal resistance might be greatest. Compositionally, the scenes are very similar, with figures on the shore gesturing to a sailing vessel just off shore. In fact, the vessel depicted in both views is identical, no doubt taken from a common sketchbook. The key difference is that while the figures in Port Macquarie are Aboriginal, those in the Tamar River view are all European.

Another comparison of similar scenes demonstrates the repeated pattern of Aboriginal absence in Van Diemen’s Land. View of the Heads (NSW) and Mt Nelson both show gateways to the colonies, with signal stations indicating state of the art

communications technology, and ships in full sail connecting these remote outposts to the empire (fig. 59). In the NSW view Aborigines are included along with settlers as markers of place and, like the colonists at the signal station, gesture toward the ships. The Van Diemen’s Land scene is typically without Aboriginal figures. Instead a uniformed officer accompanies a lady – creating a picture of order, security and perhaps sophistication lacking in the NSW view.

Engravings prepared from watercolour views of Van Diemen’s Land feature a number of additions to emphasise the advancement of colonial industry. McPhee points to ships added to a harbour scene, smoke from a chimney, and extra figures to populate the landscape, including travellers, an artist (possible a self-portrait), and a soldier with a well-dressed female companion to create the impression of a safe, civilised and productive colonial setting,

All these later embellishments emphasise the extent and impact of European settlement and the safety of settlers and must have been very deliberately added,

not just to emphasise the picturesque elements of the landscape, but to appeal to potential investors and settlers.405

This leaves a key question. If Lycett’s depictions of Aborigines in NSW could be used to assuage concerns about frontier conflict, why was this not attempted in

relation to Van Diemen’s Land which, at the time Lycett was creating his views of the colony was also experiencing violence between settlers and Aborigines?

Figure 59 - Joseph Lycett, View of The Heads at the entrance to Port Jackson, New South Wales, (above); Mount Nelson, near Hobart Town, from near Mulgrave battery, Van Diemen’s Land, (below), engravings from Lycett, 1824.