• Title
  [Portrait of Benjamin Boyd], Sydney, 1846 / J. Backler
• Creator
  Joseph Backler, 1813-1895
• Call number
  ML 1559
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  1846
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Paintings
• Reference code
  9650368
• Physical Description
  1 painting - oil on canvas, in gilt wood frame - 89 x 73 cm
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Joseph Backler (1813?-1895), convict artist and portrait painter, who arrived in Sydney in the Portland on 25 May 1832. In 1843 Backler advertised his services as a portrait, miniature and landscape painter, in oils and watercolours'. The subject, Benjamin Boyd (1801-1851) was a Scottish entrepreneur who became a shipowner, banker, grazier, politician and pioneer in the colony of New South Wales. He was the son of Edward Boyd, a London merchant of Merton Hall, Wigtonshire, Scotland, and his wife Janet, daughter of Benjamin Yule of Wheatfield, Midlothian.
  
  References:
  Australian Dictionary of Biography, (viewed online 30 April 2020), http://adb.anu.edu.au
  'Benjamin Boyd', The Peerage (viewed online 30 April 2020), http://www.thepeerage.com/
• Collection history
  By descent from Boyd family to the Coram family. Between 1846 and 1914, the painting resided in Mertonhall, Wigton with the Boyd family. Ownership was transferred to Marion Gray Boyd (b. 1850 d. 1916), only child of James Boyd and Elizabeth Gray, who married Edward William Sprot (b. 1846 d. 1898). The painting was inherited by their only son Captain James William Lennox Sprot (b. 1886 d. 1914) and their daughter Sheila Marion Roma Sprot. The donors parents Cecilia Anne Lindsay MacDougall and Jonathan Coram were given the painting as wedding present by Sheila Gibbon (nee Sprot) in 1972. The painting remained in their home in Bristol until 1985, and was then returned to Sheila Gibbon (nee Sprot) in Edinburgh from the mid 1990’s until her death on 10 December 2012. The painting was bequeathed to Brendan Coram in his late grandmother, Sheila Gibbon (nee Sprot)'s will. Reference Library correspondence file
• Scope and Content
  A full-length portrait, in an original gilded wooden frame with matching gilded slip, of Benjamin Boyd with his horse and dogs set in a mountainous rural landscape. A group of Indigenous people are depicted around a campfire in the background.
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Creator died before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• Description source
  
  Title devised by cataloguer based on vendor information
• General note
  
  This portrait may have been commissioned from the artist by the sitter’s brother, James Boyd (1819-1852) as a gift to their mother Janet.
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  Signed and dated lower right 'J. Backler Sydney 1846'
  Inscribed in iron gall ink on stretcher 'Mr James Boyd to his Mother 1846'
• Subject
  Boyd, Benjamin, 1803-1851--Portraits.
  Portraits, Australian--19th century.
  Aboriginal Australians in art.
  Dogs--Australia--Pictorial works.
  Horses--Pictorial works.
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE20191253

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