portraitist and sketcher, worked in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1855. He advertised in the Mercury on 22, 24 and 26 January 1855 and in the Hobart Town Courier on 22 February 1855 that he had begun taking portraits in French crayons (pastels) and that 'Parties who desire it can be attended at their own residences’ by leaving their address at his studio on the corner of Campbell and Brisbane streets. The following notice, under the heading 'Fine Arts’, also appeared in the Mercury on 22 January 1855: 'We have a recent addition to the artistic corps in the person of Mr Bass whose portraits in French crayons exhibit a very pleasing style of portraiture’.
Thomas Bass, an auctioneer at Adelaide in 1853-55 who had come to Hobart Town for the health of his family, applied for a Tasmanian auctioneer’s licence on 21 February 1855. In August he requested that the licence include his brother William who had been working with him since the licence had been granted in March. Possibly this William Bass was the artist. There is no record of the second licence being granted and no other Tasmanian references have been found. However, a watercolour titled The Blue Mountains near Wollongong, New South Wales is signed 'W.C. Bass’ (NLA); the date is illegible (18?9).
- Writers:
- Valentine, Barbara
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
