You are viewing the version of bio from Dec. 7, 2012, 10:39 p.m. , as edited by tolmih (needs approval).
Revert to this revision Go to current record
This record needs moderation

Difference between this version and previous

Field This Version Previous Version
Record status needs approval moderator approved
Date modified Dec. 7, 2012, 10:39 p.m. Nov. 8, 2012, 1:44 p.m.
Field Changes
Biography
Contributors
  • 1545
Date modified Dec. 7, 2012, 10:39 p.m. April 11, 2011, midnight
watercolourist, designer and settler,John Carter was born in Waltham Abbey, England where he is said to have received some trawas a Designer of Printing as a textile designer. Emigrating to New Zealand in 1840, Carter later settled in the Clarence River district of northern New South Wales and, later still, at Smeaton near Ballarat, Victornd Weaving. He emigrated to Australia on the S.S. Great Britain with his wife and Family in 1861 and later went to New Zealand for about 7 years where two more children were born before returning to Australia. In 1867 he painted two transparencies to decorate local business premises for the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to Melbourne. The first, 12 x 6 feet (3.6 x 1.8 m), for Messrs Greig & Murray, depicted the Victorian coat of arms; the second, 20 x 12 feet (6.1 x 3.7 m), for the Southern Insurance Company, was altogether more elaborate. In it Carter painted the Duke seated beside Neptune in his chariot drawn by sea-horses and followed by mermaids leading the Duke's ship, the _Galatea_ , across the ocean. ¶

When his watercolour _Sketches from Nature, New Zealand_ were shown at the Ballarat Mechanics Institute in 1869, Carter himself was probably in New Zealand. His name appears in the Dunedin trade directory for the following year. Then he returned to Melbourne, being listed as a drawing teacher of Rathdowne Street, Carlton, in 1872-73. He showed _A Panel in Pencil_ , _A Panel with Victorian Birds, for Decoration_ , _A Design for Paper_ and a watercolour of fruit at the Victorian Intercolonial Exhibition in preparation for the 1873 London International Exhibition in 1872, while another _Fruit_ watercolour was shown non-competitively at the preparatory exhibition to the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Mr Carter of Victoria showed 'some nice pictures of still life' with the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1877; the _Sydney Mail_ critic thought that _Oysters_ would 'probably deceive a good many casual observers'. ¶

More natural history subjects were included in the 1879 Sydney International Exhibition from 23 Drummond Street, Carlton (Vic.): _Fruit_ , _Bird's Nest_ , _Redbreast's Retreat_ and _Belladonna Lily_ . In 1880 four of his watercolours (including _New Caledonian Pigeon_ ) and two oil paintings (both _Fruit_ ) were sent to the Melbourne International Exhibition by the Victorian Academy of Arts of which he apparently remained a stalwart member. Some of his landscape and natural history drawings, both of Australian and New Zealand subjects, are in a family collection. Many others are held privately.