The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Depicts Aboriginal men, wearing body paint and paint (or clay) on heads carrying spears and shields.This is one of the earliest works in the art collection which reveals much about the commonly held views of Aboriginal people during the Colonial period in Australia. John Heaviside Clark's image depicts a number of Aboriginal men wearing body paint, carrying spears and shields depicted in a theatrically aggressive manner.
Clark (c.1770-1863) was a landscape painter, commercial artist, book illustrator and engraver who worked in London. Although as an artist he espoused sketching directly from nature, it is doubtful that Clark actually visited Australia to record the Aboriginal warriors he so dramatically captures in this work. His work reveals the fanciful beliefs prevalent at the time of indigenous people as 'naked savages' and illustrations in this vein were largely designed to meet the British public's interest in the 'curiosities to be found in the colony of New South Wales'. This image was one of a series illustrating John Heaviside Clarke's 1813 book 'Field Sports, & c. &c. of the Native Inhabitants of New South Wales'. It was dedicated to Rear Admiral Bligh and published and sold by Edward Orme, printseller and publisher to His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Prince Regent.
Print made by Pierre Langlumé c.1817-1822 after the original artwork by Jacques Arago. Arago was French writer, artist and explorer. He joined Louis de Freycinet on his scientific world voyage aboard
A large group of Aboriginal men wearing loincloths and painted for corroboree stand in a circle together, raising their spears. Three other Aboriginal men stand to the right of the performance, also w
Two warriors in combat. Frontal upper body of warrior holding above his head a three-legged body of a dead warrior lying horizontally with his head pointing to the right. The figures are modelled with
Five Aboriginal men stand together wearing traditional performance body paint and hold spears. One of a series of photographs either taken or collected by Roy Cecil Phillipps (later Squadron Leader R.
Depicts a group of Aboriginal men wearing traditional war paint and traditional outfits, holding spears and shields. An Aboriginal stockman is mounted on his horse behind the group with other Aborigin
"Kimberley natives". A group of Aboriginal men wearing traditional war/performance body paint, carrying spears and engaging in a corroboree. One of a series of photographs either taken or collected by