Design and Art Australia Online

Legallé or Lackley (c.1820-40) enters the historical record as a member of George Augustus Robinson’s expedition in search of the North Eastern and Eastern tribes. Originally from Port Sorrell he was the son of a chief of the Larmairretorhe people.

In Australia there is a considerable body of drawings produced by nineteenth-century mainland Aboriginal artists. These objects are extraordinary products of the interaction between Aboriginal society and the British colonisers. They were made when Aboriginal artists were allowed access to European media such as pencil, and pen and ink.

There are written records stating that Tasmanian Aborigines drew with charcoal and decorated the interiors of bark shelters. However, this tiny, but lively, drawing by Legallé is the only extant graphic work from a nineteenth-century Tasmanian Aboriginal artist. The bird’s crest has given the work its title but it could also be a domestic fowl or maybe even the Tasmanian native hen ( Gallinula mortierii). Here the bird appears to be pecking at a grub.

Writers:

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Date written:

2007

Last updated:

2011