Customer Reviews

The Art of First Fleet and other Early Australian Drawings (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in Britis)

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This volume of drawings with brief commentary By Bernard Smith, the foremost historian of Australian art, is of interest to students of both Australian history and art. Whilst not to everyone's aesthetic taste the early work of the very first European colonists in Australia has an undeniable vigour. It's the directness of their work that makes these images captivating - the collision of two irreconcilable cultures is captured here with an almost hullicanatory strangeness. Unfortunately the text is sparing, this is primarily a visual source, but as an object of beauty this book should be owned by all interested in the history of colonial Australia.

I bought this to gift to the Florilegium at the Filoli Library. Found that this book was a much more extensive book on the natural history of australia--flowers and plants, birds, aboriginals, and even early 'city' and shore views from ships offshore. It is also a history of the First Fleet and the earliest colonization of Australia. So I have decided to keep it! I should mention the book includes three of the best classic illustrations of flowers and birds in a large format: Watling's Waratah (Telopea speciosissima) and the Black Swan by the Port Jackson Painter (now believed to be Conrad Martin). The mix between the color and black & white prints is well done: the best is reproduced in color. My guess is that books on this subject--published by the Australian Natural History Museum and their publishers--and this book by Mellon will become a collector's tome in time.