Alfred Thomas Agate b. 14 February 1812

  • Artist (Draughtsman)
American male colonial botanical and portrait sketcher who visited Australia as part of the 1838-1842 USA World Expedition. Agate remained in Sydney drawing NSW landscapes while the rest of the team toured Antarctica.
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sketcher and draughtsman, son of Thomas and Hannah Agate, was born on 14 February 1812 in Sparta, New York, where he studied art with his brother Frederick and the painter Thomas Cummings. Agate was appointed 'portrait and botanical artist’ on the United States’ world expedition of 1838 42 led by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. Travelling with the scientific team on board the USS Relief , he reached Sydney in December 1839 and stayed there until March 1840 with the other 'civilians’ while Wilkes continued on to the Antarctic with the naval members of the expedition.

In New South Wales Agate drew views of Sydney and its environs. Several were published as engravings in Charles Wilkes’s Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition for which he prepared over half the illustrations. The second volume contains four engravings of Australian subjects after Agate’s sketches – Sydney, View from Kirribilli looking South , Corrobory New Holland , Settler’s Cottage and Forest, Illiwarra [sic], N.S.W. – as well as several vignettes.

Agate married Elizabeth Hill Kennedy of Alexandria in 1845, but died of tuberculosis at Washington DC on 5 January 1846. His sketches from the voyage are in the Natural History Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

Writers:
Staff Writer
Date written:
1992
Last updated:
2011

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References [<ExternalResource: Cosentino, A. J. / Glassie, H. H. (1983), 'Capital Image: Painters in Washington 1800-1915', Washington, USA.>, <ExternalResource: Fielding, M. (1926), 'Dictionary of American Painters', Sculptors and Engravers, Philadelphia, USA.>, <ExternalResource: Wilkes, C. (1844), 'Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842', 5 vols and atlas, Philadelphia, USA.>, <ExternalResource: Dixson, W., 'Notes on Australian artists', Dixon Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney, manuscript WD53.>, <ExternalResource: Information sourced from Callaway, Anita.>, <ExternalResource: Information sourced from Organ, Michael.>]