Item 05: Jane Emily Atkinson album of watercolours and drawings, Decr. 28th 1848 / drawings attributed to Charlotte Atkinson

PXA 579

file

Decr. 28th 1848

Graphic Materials, Drawings, Watercolours

446206

1 album of watercolours, ink, and pencil drawings (84 pages, with marbled covers and endpapers) - 23.1 x 19.1 cm.
4 drawings - watercolour, pencil, and ink - 33.3 x 30.5 cm. or smaller

Album
Contains miscellaneous drawings. Some of the subjects include sentimental genre scenes, a rowing boat with crew on the Glenelg River (S.A.), Wellington Caves (N.S.W.), portraits, hunting of lions, bison and buffalo, landscapes of Africa and American views, and animals, plants, and insects.

The album includes a portrait of a young woman in a cloak, possibly a self-portrait of Charlotte Waring Atkinson. Other portraits are possibly her daughters Charlotte Elizabeth, Jane Emily, and Louisa Atkinson.

Drawings
1. [Fish - 2 pencil studies]
2. [Rocks]
3. Plate 29 [Indigenous artefacts with key]
4. [Shells]

Previously titled 'Jane Emily Atkinson album of watercolour drawings, ca. 1848'. Title amended in July 2020 based on attribution of watercolours and drawings in the album to Charlotte Atkinson (nee Waring, also known as Charlotte Barton).

Some of the pages of the album are blank.
Some of the drawings are titled in the same hand as the name inscription at the front of the volume.

None of the works are signed or dated.
Inscribed in ink front page of album, 'Jane Emily Atkinson / Decr. 28th 1848.'.
Loose slip accompanying album by donor 'This is the last 1989 to M.L [ie. Mitchell Library] by J L Cosh - a gift to Emily not her work certainly by her mother'.

Drawings in the album attributed to Charlotte Atkinson by Dr Kate Forsyth in July 2020. Previously, it was thought the note by the donor accompanying the album read '...a gift to Emily not her work certainly by her brother' - on reexamination the note is '...a gift to Emily not her work certainly by her mother', indicating the donor attributed the album to Charlotte Atkinson, the mother of Jane Emily Atkinson. This would suggest that Jane Emily Atkinson was the owner of the album, not the artist.

The attribution to Charlotte Atkinson is further supported by comparison with an 1843 sketchbook inscribed 'Jane Emily Atkinson The gift of her beloved Mama [ie. Charlotte Atkinson]' in private ownership.

The portrait of the young woman in a cloak contained in the album is believed to be a self-portrait of Charlotte Atkinson by Dr Kate Forsyth. In a journal that Charlotte wrote on board the Cumberland on a voyage from Engalnd to NSW in 1826 (held by the National Library of Australia), she writes 'I sat on the poop wrapped in Mr Atkinson’s plaid cloak', and later 'Mr A brought me his warm plaid cloak'.

Reference:
Information provided by Dr Kate Forsyth, July 2020