• Title
  Aboriginal portraits by Henry Turbit, ca. 1820-1830s ; European portrait, artist unknown, 1824
• Call number
  PXA 1033
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  [ca. 1820-1830s]
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Drawings
• Reference code
  442015
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  Drawings - 4 drawings
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Henry Turbit, (i.e. Turbitt or Turbett) is probably Henry Turbett (b. 1799) who was sentenced at Middlesex for seven years in 1815. Turbett arrived in Sydney on the Mariner in 1816. He was employed as a carpenter in the 1820s and eventually moved into hotels, having the licence in the 1830s to the Carpenters Arms, in Sussex Street. These are the only drawings known of his. -- ML 04/703
• Scope and Content
  1. Frying Pan / Drawn by Hy Turbit. Watercolour and pencil. 26 x 21 cm. Full-length profile portrait showing Frying Pan wrapped in a blanket wearing a gorget or breastplate.
  2. Gooseberry. Watercolour and pencil. 26 x 21 cm. Full-length profile portrait of Gooseberry with blanket draped across one shoulder, holding a stick and bottle.
  3. [Untitled Aboriginal male portrait]. Watercolour and pencil. 24.4 x 20.2 cm. Three quarter length portrait showing an Aboriginal man holding a boomerang, draped with a blanket and a pipe through his nose. Includes a profile head and shoulders pencil sketch of a European woman inset at upper right.
  4. [European female portrait, 1824. Artist unknown]. Pencil drawing. 19.6 x 13.9 cm. Three quarter length portrait of a young woman sitting in a chair holding a book.
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Creator died before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  The Aboriginal portraits probably date from the 1820s or 1830s and are unusual because few European colonists of that period involved themselves with Aboriginal portraiture. The majority of images of Aboriginal people available in Sydney during these decades were published.
  Gooseberry (d.1852), the wife of Bungaree (d.1830), was known as 'Queen of Sydney to South Head' or 'Queen of Sydney and Botany' and was a Sydney identity for years after her husband's death. She was often seen wrapped in a government issued blanket, her head covered with a scarf and a clay pipe in her mouth, sitting with her family and other Aborigines camped on the footpath outside the Cricketers' Arms, on the corner of Pitt and Market Streets. She was the subject of a number of prints. Augustus Earle showed her sitting at the feet of Bungaree in his 1830 lithograph Bungaree a native chief of New South Wales (Views in New South Wales and Van Diemens Land, 1830), while Charles Rodius included her in his lithograph Biddy Salmander / Broken Bay Tribe [&] Bulkabra / Chief of Botany, / N.S. Wales [&] Gooseberry / Queen of Bungaree (SV*/Sp Coll/Rodius/3). None of these images, however, appears to be the source of Turbit's Gooseberry -- Curator's notes, Aug 2004
  It is possible that `Frying Pan' was from the Illawarra region. Thirty rugs/blankets were issued at Wollongong in 1829 and `Frying Pan' was included in the listing. Reference: Illawarra and South Coast aborigines, 1770-1900 / compiled by Michael Organ ; with assistance from Jim Smith...[et al.]. Wollongong, N.S.W. : M. Organ, 1993. pp.66-7
  Digital order no:Album ID : 824236
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  No.1 "Frying Pan / Drawn by Hy Turbit" -- at lower edge of drawing. The inscription has been defined by ink in a later hand and "Sydney" added.
  No.2 "Gooseberry" -- at lower edge of drawing.
  No.4 "Godby 46 Middlesex Street / Somers Town [?]/ April 28 1824" -- in pencil on reverse
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Turbit, Henry
  
• Subject
  Gooseberry, Cora
  Adult Females
  Adult Males
  
• Topic
  Aboriginal peoples (Australians)
  colonial art
  Europeans
  portraits
  rugs (blankets)
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE3217884

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