Knud Bull, Hallgreen, New Norfolk, 1854, oil on canvas, 31 x 44 cm. Allport Library & Museum of Fine Art, Hobart C13 (detail).
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The 2024 National tour to Adelaide and its environs proved, from all reports, to be another outstanding success. It is difficult to believe that this was the first tour to Adelaide in the Society’s 46-year history. It was fantastic to provide the opportunity for South Australian members to attend a national tour in their own state and to attend the Annual Kevin Fahy Lecture at historic Ayers House.
The David Roche Foundation, Adelaide will show highlights from the Luke Jones toy collection this winter.
Knud Bull was born in Norway. He trained as an artist and painted in Norway, Dresden, Copenhagen and Stockholm before moving to London in 1845, where he was arrested for counterfeiting and sentenced to 14 years transportation in Australia. Arriving at Norfolk Island, after nine months he was transferred to Van Diemen’s Land, where he gradually gained more freedom and was able to paint. Absconding in 1850 brought him only a month of freedom, but he luckily got his ticket- of-leave in 1852, and married another convict soon after. Bull continued to paint Tasmanian portraits and landscapes,and dabbled in photography. In 1856, he left Tasmania. Robert Stevens continues to follow his life, painting portraits and landscapes, and occasionally getting into trouble with the law, through Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Ballarat and finally Sydney, where he died aged 77.
Bill Lowe argues that a silver mug engraved with initials, probably as a christening present, and bearing pseudo-hallmarks and maker’s initials ‘JF’, was most probably made in Hobart by Scottish-born convict silversmith Joseph Forrester, when he was in business there on his own account in the early 1840s. While many pieces have been attributed to Forrester (1805–1863), this would be the first, and so far the only, piece of silver attributed to Forrester which also bears his initials as maker.
Australiana is sometimes accused of being exclusive, publishing articles only on fine, expensive, early-19th century art and artefacts associated with famous men or families from the Eastern States. South Australian contributor Peter Lane delves into the makers and designers of early 20th century crochet lace, who entered a crochet competition run by a Melbourne newspaper. All were women, many of them married in working- class families. All the women were proud of their delicate crochet work, which brought a degree of creativity, artistry and refinement to their otherwise basic homes. One of them, Nell Dyson, even walked five miles (8 km) into town (and back) to get cotton thread, while her husband had the luxury of a push bike to ride into town to post her entry in The Weekly Times crochet design competition, an event that the proprietors hoped would encourage aspiring lace artists to incorporate Australian motifs into their designs.
The inaugural Australiana Society Tour of South Australia was held from Thursday 21 March to Monday 26 March 2024 and took in a variety of museums, public and private collections.
