natural history painter, lithographer and Congregational clergyman, was born in Southampton, England. In London he was a pupil of the painter and engraver Le Cocq who had trained with the eminent engraver Bartolozzi. After he became Congregational minister at Peartree Green, Southampton, Laishley kept up his interest in natural history illustration, studying and drawing plants and birds in the New Forest. Appointed by the Congregational Missionary Society, he travelled to New Zealand in 1860; the British Museum (Natural History) holds his shipboard diary. He lived at Auckland until sent to Melbourne in 1868.
As a Victorian exhibitor at the 1870 Sydney Intercolonial Exhibition Laishley showed lithographic illustrations with accompanying descriptions intended for a projected book, 'Parrots of Australia’, for sale at 7s 6d each. The prints were highly commended by the fine art jurors, who stated in their official report: 'This specimen gives promise of a work in the highest degree creditable to all concerned in its production; the typography also is excellent’. Only one incomplete part of what appears to be this volume is known (ML). Written by Rev. J.J. Halley, The Parrot Family of Australia ( Hamel & Ferguson, Ballarat 1871) contains three plates by James W. Sayer , one of which, Polytelis melanura. Black tailed Parakeet [and] Polytelis barrabandi. Barraband’s Parakeet , is said to have been put on the stone by Laishley. The most conventional depiction of the three, it merely shows the two birds perched on a branch, although it has the same vibrant colour as the other two plates. Laishley’s role in its production, however, appears to have been minor.
Laishley returned to New Zealand in 1874 and settled at Thames. He showed three oil paintings in the New Zealand Court at the 1879 Sydney International Exhibition: Finding the Body of William Rufus in the New Forest , Children in the Wood and Maori Woman with Peaches . He revisited England in 1883 84, after his return exhibiting with the Auckland Society of Art in 1884 and 1887. He retired in 1890 and died in 1897. His only known book is the early British Birds Eggs , his ministerial duties apparently interfering with the completion of others. The British Museum (Natural History) holds the manuscript of his 'Gleanings of natural history in New Zealand’, accompanied by a volume of original watercolour and pencil natural history illustrations. A notebook containing parts of his unfinished autobiography (BM) and a manuscript entitled 'Sketch notes of family history’ (ATL) are also known.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
