James Wilson b. 1804

Also known as James Armstrong Wilson
  • Artist (Painter)
James Armstrong Wilson was a portrait and figure painter born in Scotland. A resident of Sydney and surrounding areas he drowned in a storm with members of his family, and all his books, papers, possessions and paintings. Claimed by his daughter to be the 'first painter in Sydney', Wilson painted the portraits of nearly all the people of note.

Citations

  • Buscombe, Eve (1979), 'Artists in early Australia and their portraits : a guide to the portrait painters of early Australia with special reference to colonial New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land to 1850 with detailed biographies, catalogues of works and sources of Australian portraiture’, Sydney, NSW : Eureka Research.

  • Herman, M. (ed.) (1965), 'Annabella Boswell’s Journal’, Sydney, NSW.

  • Chapman, A. (1906), 'The reminiscences of Anne Hale Chapman née Wilson’, Sydney, NSW : State Library of New South Wales, Mitchell Library, manuscript (1894-1906).

  • 'Sydney Mechanics Institute Reports’, Sydney, NSW : State Library of New South Wales, Mitchell Library (manuscript A4149).

  • Buscombe, Eve, 'Who was Mrs Wilson Anyway?’, Tasmania : Proceedings of the Tasmanian Historical Research Association, [27/1].

  • Information sourced from Lennon, J.

Initial data sources

  • The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870