National Library of Australia

The Exhibition

Travellers Art: An exhibition of rare late eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century drawings, watercolours, sketchbooks, diaries, hand drawn maps, manuscripts and photographs, all of which were made while travelling.

The need for readily accessible materials and the speed required when making art from nature, mean that this is largely an exhibition of informal drawings and watercolours. These works capture social interactions, the ephemeral effects of weather and light, and record previously unknown flora and fauna.

At the core of the exhibition are large groups of works that are chronologically arranged to visually describe the progress of four major journeys undertaken by John Webber, William Westall, Augustus Earle and Samuel Thomas Gill. Spread amongst these journeys are discrete selections of works by pre-eminent artists such as William Hodges, Sydney Parkinson, Sophia Campbell, John Lewin, Joseph Lycett, Ferdinand Bauer, Conrad Martens, Thomas Baines, George French Angas, John Skinner Prout and Nicholas Chevalier. The final ‘journey’ of the exhibition follows the gradual replacement of drawn and painted travel art by photography, from the 1860s.

National Library of Australia Exhibition Gallery
12 June - 21 September 2003
Opening hours 9.00am to 5.00pm
Admission Free