NarrynA

Our Collections

Artwork & Photograph Collection

Narryna’s art collection includes works by CHT Costantini, Knut Bull, Robert Hawker Dowling, William Paul Dowling, John Woodcock Graves, Louisa Ann Meredith and unidentified British and Tasmanian 19th century artists. Also represented is the work of pioneer photographers Thomas Bock, Alfred Bock, Thomas Browne and Frederick Frith. The collection was developed through the personal and family associations of the museum’s founders and therefore contains many portraits.

Fanny Maria Davenport, aged 12 years

Ambrotype 1/6th plate, 1861

Photographer: Unknown

Donor: Miss Cecily Shoobridge

Artist unknown

Portrait of Ann Blackman (née Strutt, 1831-1915) c. 1842,

Watercolour.

The portrait of Ann Blackman shows her sitting on a couch having set aside her reading, probably in a drawing room like Narryna’s. The portrait is most likely a page from an amateur watercolour artist’s sketch book, reflecting women gathering in the drawing room for music, reading and art practice.

Donor: Miss E. Glenda Strutt

Walter Charles Davenport, aged 8 years

Ambrotype 1/6th plate, 1861

Photographer: Unknown

Mary Jane Boyes, wife of Henry Boyes with her eldest son George Benson Boyes.

Ambrotype 1/6th plate, coloured, 1857/8.

Photographer: Frith?

Donor: Miss M Boyes

Robert Hawker Dowling (1827-1886), attributed

Ann Eliza Buckland (1794-1873) c. 1855

Oil on canvas

Ann Eliza Buckland was the first wife of auditor, Charles Buckland, who arrived in Hobart in 1841. She and her daughter opened a school soon after their arrival which offered 'instruction in Music, Singing, French, Drawing and Dancing’ at their home in Davey Street. Mrs Buckland painted botanical watercolours between 1847 and 1850 which are now held by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Presented by David O’May

Knut Bull (1811-1898, active in Tasmania from 1847.

Portrait of Mrs John Coverdale (née Anne Harbroe, 1818-1875)  c. 1855,

Oil on canvas

Six days after Anne Harbroe arrived from London with her parents in 1838 she married Dr John Coverdale MD. In 1840 Dr Coverdale became district surgeon at Richmond and in 1865 Superintendent of the Queen’s Asylum for Orphans at New Town. Nine years later in 1874 the Coverdales moved to the declining penal settlement at Port Arthur where Dr Coverdale was appointed the last Civil Commandant before its closure in 1877. It was at Port Arthur, a little over a year later that Anne died.

 Donor: Anne Coverdale’s granddaughter Mrs Miles Holland

Henry Mundy (c. 1798-1848, active in Tasmania from 1831)

Francis Aubin (1802-1874)

Oil on canvas

Frank Aubin was born in the Jersey Islands and arrived in Hobart in 1828 as a Lieutenant in the 63rd Regiment. In 1829 he was appointed Adjutant of Hobart Town and three months later was made Aide-de-Camp to Governor Arthur (an Aide-de-Camp is a personal assistant to a person of high military or civil rank). In 1850 he married Maria Caroline Lord at ‘Okehampton’, Spring Bay, Tasmania. and thus became a brother-in-law of the artist, by then deceased.

Henry Mundy arrived in Hobart hoping to obtain employment as tutor to the family of Lieut-Governor George Arthur. This role was secured by artist, Benjamin Duterrau, ahead of Mundy’s arrival. Mundy subsequently taught at Ellenthorp Hall, Ross, where he met his future wife. In addition to painting glamorous portraits of northern Tasmania’s pastoral gentry, Mundy was a musician and composer of music for the quadrilles, a ballroom dance of the mid-19th century. Contemporary singer, Kate Ceberano is a descendant of Mundy and this portrait featured in the episode of the SBS series Who do you think you are? In which Ceberano went in search of her musical forebears.

Donor: Mrs Pearson

Mary Boyes, daughter of G. T. W. B. Boyes Daguerreotype 1/6th plate, coloured 1849

Photographer: Thomas Browne or Thomas Bock

Mary Boyes was born in Hobart in 1835, and died 1 August 1853 of Scarlet Fever, fifteen days before her father.

Donor: Miss M Boyes

Unknown artist, Liverpool region, England.

Ship portrait of The Sir John Rae Reid c. 1832

This ship ‘portrait’ was probably acquired or commissioned by Narryna’s builder, Captain Andrew Haig when he acquired a half share (with his uncle, Jacob Mills) in the Sir John Rae Reid in 1832. The painting was most likely acquired by Sir William Crowther from Captain Haig’s daughter, Fanny Reid. Crowther is believed to have presented the painting to the Ship Lover’s Society (a forerunner of the Maritime Museum of Tasmania) which was based at Narryna 1955-1974.

Speedy voyages between Tasmania and England in the 1833-35 period marked the high point of Captain Andrew Haig’s reputation as a mariner. Haig’s wife Elizabeth, three of their children and Haig’s half sister, Mary Ann, accompanied him to Tasmania on the outward voyage of the Sir John Rae Reid arriving in Hobart on 21 January 1835.

The ship was central to Haig’s success but as recession hit the British colonies and trade decreased, Haig’s uncle, Jacob Mills, repossessed his half-share in the vessel, bringing the Sir John Rae Reid back to London in 1839 to travel on the trading route between London and the West Indies. This marked the turning of the tide in Captain Andrew Haig’s fortunes.

Robert Hawker Dowling (1827-1886)

Portrait of Charles Buckland (1789-1880) c.1855

Oil on canvas

Charles Buckland arrived in Hobart with his wife and family in 1841 and was employed in the Audit Department until 1871. He was the uncle of the Rev. J. R. Buckland of the Hutchins School. His daughter, Elizabeth was first wife of Sir Valentine Fleming who was Chief Justice of Tasmania in 1854-1869 and Acting Chief Justice 1872-1874. This portrait is one of a ‘family’ of four portraits of three generations of the Buckland and Fleming family, similarly framed. Robert Hawker Dowling arrived in Launceston aged 3 years old with his father, the Baptist Minister, Rev. Henry Dowling. Following art studies with Frederick Strange and Henry Mundy, he set off for London and was the first Australian artist to have a professional career in Britain.

Donor: David O’May

John Wilkinson (1806-1885), first Hobart Town chemist (from 1830), c1856-60

Ambrotype

Photographer unknown

Presented by Miss E. Hull Donor: Miss E Hull

William Paul Dowling (Dublin c. 1824 – Launceston 1877, active in Tasmania from 1850)

‘Portrait of Mrs Waring as a child’ c. 1860s

Oil on canvas, myrtle-veneer frame probably by Robin Hood of Hobart

Legend has it that this is actually a double portrait and that the features of the girl’s older sister who refused to sit for the artist are represented on the doll.