painter and naval surgeon, joined the Royal Navy in September 1813. Between June 1814 and February 1815 he was surgeon on board the Snake commanded by Captain J. Gape. Appointed to HMS Success in February 1826, he sailed under Captain James Stirling on his voyage to explore the Swan River in March 1827. As well as acting as surgeon, Clause made observations on the climate and topography, included in Stirling’s report to the Admiralty. With the expedition’s artist Frederick Garling and botanist Charles Fraser (see diary, National Library of Australia), he accompanied Stirling on an eight-day survey of the river. The ship’s clerk, Augustus Gilbert, wrote a day-by-day account (published Perth, 1907).
A watercolour in Clause’s possession was used by the British marine artist William John Huggins for his popular etching and aquatint, Swan River. 50 Miles Up. This View Represents the Bivouac of Capt. Stirling in their Exploring Party, March 1827, from an Original Drawing in Possession of F.R. Clause Esqr. Surgeon R.N. to whom this Engraving is Dedicated by his Obedient Servant, J.W. Huggins , published in January 1830. The 'original drawing’ may be the small watercolour Captain Stirling’s Exploration of the Swan River 1827 , now in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, although the view was a popular one and several versions exist: two oils, a pencil drawing, two watercolours, Huggins’s print and an aquatint.
One of the oils is a crude and tographraphically inaccurate view by Clause, Setting Camp of the Naval Survey Expedition, at the Mill Pool, Perth, Western Australia (Robert Holmes à Court Collection), which was more likely concocted from Garling more topographically accurate views than from sketches Clause made on the spot. On 29 October 1932 the West Australian newspaper illustrated Clause’s oil painting, then titled The Mill Pool , and stated that it was painted in 1828 from a sketch made by Dr Clause when the Stirling expedition was camped at what is now Mill Point. But this was farther up the Swan that Stirling was able to go. In fact, as Mary Eagle proved in 2000, the view is of a lagoon on the small stream of Claisebrook in what is now East Perth, where the party bivouacked the first night – a location that determined the site of the city of Perth.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
