Joseph Lycett was a convict artist. His album of 20 realistic watercolours from about 1820 is one of the most valuable collections of landscape paintings depicting Indigenous people in their daily life. The images are significant both as works of art, and as rare historical documents showing scenes of fishing and hunting, of family groups in social settings, and of men holding a corroboree. In other works, however, Lycett was also influenced by the travel writings of William Gilpin. Many of his landscape aquatints were featured in his book Views in Australia (1824/25), published in England following his reprieve. This book’s purpose was promotional: the colony appears prosperous and fertile, and the images were accompanied by enticing verbal descriptions reflecting the sense of Australia as an extensive park or garden.
To view a further selection of Lycett works, in addition to the ones featured below, visit the National Library of Australia pictures catalogue.