natural history painter, sketcher, geologist and biologist, left a position at London’s Royal College of Surgeons in 1825 to become naturalist for the Pacific Pearl Fishery Company on its expedition to the Tuamotu Archipelago. During the nearly two-year-long voyage Stutchbury visited New South Wales, New Zealand, Tahiti and other Society Islands. His journals of the voyage (Alexander Turnbull Library) are copiously illustrated with pen-and-ink sketches of topographic features, and a few watercolours of zoological subjects. His earliest Australian sketches are of some of the islands in Bass Strait (drawn December 1825) and of Aboriginal artefacts in Jervis Bay; there is almost nothing from the Sydney region where he spent several months.
During 1826 he made sketches at the Bay of Islands, Rapa, Tahiti, Huahine and most of the islands visited, particularly Hao in the Tuamotu Group. Although apparently largely designed to record the topographic character of distinguishing landmarks at the various ports of call or some significant scientific matter (the variation in depth of coral lagoons, for example), occasional drawings show attention to detail and attempt a more consciously 'artistic’ portrayal. A few zoological subjects show considerable care in their execution. While Stutchbury kept a rough working journal as well as a more polished version, the sketches differ little from one another, some being omitted and a little colour being added occasionally to others in the latter volume. None of the Australian material has so far been published, but the journal is being edited for this purpose. A few sketches pertaining to Tahiti and other Society Islands were published in 1836.
Stutchbury was curator of the Museum of the Bristol Philosophical Institution from 1831 to 1850, during which time he published a number of scientific papers on geological and biological topics illustrated with his own sketches or with diagrams based on them and 'upgraded’ by scientific artists such as George B. Sowerby. During this period he also acted as a consultant to the Duchy of Cornwall, mainly in regard to the Somerset Coalfields. As well as geological maps, his reports contain some sketches.
In 1850 Stutchbury came to Sydney to carry out an official geological and mineralogical survey of NSW. The originals of his official reports to the colonial secretary (mostly Dixson Library) and his journals for the next few years (Mitchell Library) contain numerous sketches, the Australian material beginning with coastal views, particularly in the vicinity of Twofold Bay. Some of the later sketches in the Stutchbury journals and reports are signed by W.M. Curtis , his field assistant for several years, who almost certainly worked from Stutchbury’s outline drawings. Stutchbury’s basic skills in sketching were used mainly to record and present scientific data. Although he had expertise enough to produce more finished drawings and paintings, he seems rarely to have had the interest or the time to do so. He returned to England in ill health in 1856 and died at Bristol on 12 February 1859.
- Writers:
- Branagan, David
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
