painter, produced two oil paintings of miners on the Victorian diggings during the early years of the gold-rush. A Ballarat Identity, signed and dated Ballarat, 30 April 1858 (Mitchell Library [ML]), shows a monumental figure of a miner sitting contemplatively by a stream smoking his pipe, while Ballarat Miners (July 1858, ML) depicts five miners in a group panning for gold. The compositions are artificial and the style primitive, yet both are convincingly realistic in mood and the miners’ facial features are quite expressive.
The firm of Mackie & McDonald signed an undated lithograph (c.1840, ML) with a very small view at the top titled City of Melbourne, Capital of Australia Felix. Founded June 1837 accompanied by four vignettes of bush life: an Aboriginal man, an Aboriginal woman, a bushman, and Roughing It Out, the last showing two men outside their tent eating damper in front of a fire. Subjects and style suggest that figures are by the same artist.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
