oil painter, scene-painter, lithographer and carpenter, was baptised on 16 July 1815 in St Anne, Shandon, Cork, son of Charles Duke, a carpenter, and his wife Catherine. With his wife Lucy, a dressmaker whom he had married on 16 February 1840, and their infant son Charles, born on the voyage out, William Duke arrived at Sydney in the Lady McNaughton as an assisted immigrant from Cork, on 16 December 1840. Originally a carpenter by trade like his father, he found employment as a scene-painter and mechanist at Sydney’s Royal Victoria Theatre. Then he went to New Zealand.
On 7 May 1845 the Sir John Franklin , with Duke aboard, arrived at Hobart Town from Auckland. There he set up as a portrait painter. His earliest dated work is a portrait, believed to be of Mrs Wilkinson, née Eldridge, signed and dated October 1845 (private collection), but two portraits of Maoris, The Celebrated Chief Hone or John Heke and Portrait of Mekata [Maketu] (1846, oil on canvas, National Library of Australia, Canberra), were presumably begun in New Zealand. Duke’s wife and two children joined him from Sydney in September, by which time he was established as a scene-painter at the Hobart Town Royal Victoria Theatre in Campbell Street.
After a benefit in July 1846 for which he painted the scenery, Duke left this position to work on a series of grand-scale panoramic and dioramic views. In August 1847 he and the mechanist Richard Johnson exhibited 'A Grand Moving Panorama’ at the Royal Victoria Theatre, which showed views of Constantinople, Florence, Jerusalem, Venice and Auckland 'for the gratification of the juvenile portion of the audience, especially those who may have entered upon the study of Geography’ ( Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser 20 August 1847: cited Colligan, page 42). It was accompanied by an 'entirely New Dramatic Spectacle’, Antony and Cleopatra: or, The Serpent of the Nile , starrring Mr. Young and Mrs Mereton. The Hobart Town Diorama, again with Duke and Johnson as joint proprietors, opened in November 1847 at the Collins Street Music Hall and was pronounced superior in scenic exhibition to anything yet attempted in the colonies. Duke supplemented his income from it with scene painting for other theatrical productions. An advertisement for Mr Lee’s benefit in the Hobart Town Herald and Total Abstinence Advocate of 13 February 1847 is illustrated with a woodcut, signed by Duke, showing the canine hero of the drama, and all the scenery in the production was advertised as his.
Duke’s lithographs of the Hobart Town High School and the local whale fishery were published in 1848. The four whale fishery lithographs met an enthusiastic reception in the local press, despite the fact that at least one, The Flurry , was a copy of a painting by the English artist William John Huggins. Robin V. Hood printed and published the first edition of these whaling prints in September 1848 (and after Duke’s death issued a second edition omitting Duke’s name). At a time when the prosperity and enterprise in the industry was coming to its peak, Duke went on to specialise in views of the Hobart Town whale fishery, producing oil paintings such as Offshore Whaling with the 'Aladdin’ and 'Jane’, October 1849 (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart) as well as lithographs. The artist’s handling of distance and light in the paintings was particularly admired. Duke’s efforts continued to receive favourable reviews when exhibited in 1850 in Robin V. Hood’s establishment and in Charles Gaylor’s long room at the Custom House Hotel.
Duke also painted landscapes and views of properties. His view of New Town (1848, oil on canvas, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart) was described as an 'exceedingly well executed specimen of colonial art’ in the Hobart Town Britannia of 13 June 1850. His versatility is evidenced by the fact that he also painted portraits, gave illustrated public lectures and, by August 1849, had completed the carving of the figure head of the barque Derwent . However, despite this range of talents, he sustained losses and, like many fellow Tasmanians, emigrated with his family to Victoria.
In the Melbourne Directory for 1851 Duke is listed at Bellerine Street, Geelong. There he continued his portrait, landscape and scene painting, e.g. Geelong from Mr Hiatt’s, Burrabool Hills (1851, oil on canvas, Geelong Art Gallery, Geelong). Under Edward Opie , he helped decorate the Queen’s Theatre. At the time of his death from heart disease, on 17 October 1853, he was painting several portraits, including one of Mr C. Young, and was in the middle of painting and decorating the American Circus for Mr Rowe. His early death at the age of 38 left his wife and six children almost destitute.
- Writers:
- Von Oppeln, Caroline
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
