Design and Art Australia Online

sketcher (?) and settler, possibly did a extremely crude pencil drawing now in the SLNSW (DL PE 279: Recq 194), which is captioned in ink, The Aborigions [sic] of Van Demonsland [sic] endeavouring to kill Mr. John Allen on Milton Farm in the District of Great Swanport on the 14th of December 1828 . It shows a tiny settler holding a gun outside his cottage on a fruit and grain farm being ambushed by a circle of over-large Aboriginal men armed with spears. A Tasmanian dealer had another drawing by Allen for sale some years ago, probably the pencil sketch attributed to E.L. Cotton, Drawn at Swansea Town in 1828…to record the events as dictated by John Allen/ after successfully holding off an attack by 18 [sic] natives for a whole day, with a brace of/ pistols, on his grant of land which he named “Milton” , that was offered at Sotheby’s 'Australia 2000’ auction on 16 August 2000 (lot 322). Despite the caption, it too seems to have only 13 natives in it, one apparently dead.

Family tradition states that Allen took his drawing to England and had it turned into an oil painting by a professional artist. What is apparently the final result (TMAG) is a highly fanciful small oil painting with a new composition containing a very large backwoodsman, Allen, in a verdant South Sea setting with palm trees. The number of Aborigines remains the same – thirteen, one prone – while the hut is clearly inspired by the drawing, though with a thatched rather than brick chimney (!).

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1999

Last updated:

2011