An animal found on the coast of New Holland called kanguroo

Unknown

after George Stubbs
Britain
1724 – 1806

An animal found on the coast of New Holland called kanguroo
plate 20 from John Hawkesworth's An account of the voyages undertaken... for making discoveries in the South Hemisphere
published 1773
engraving on paper
Place made
London
Medium
engraving on paper
State
ii/iii
Dimensions
19.9 x 24.4 cm (image)
23.0 x 27.0 cm (plate)
27.9 x 36.7 cm (sheet)
Credit line
South Australian Government Grant 1975
Accession number
752G15
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Catalogue raisonne
Lennox-Boyd 35 ii/iii
Media category
Print
Collection area
Australian prints

  • This engraving was created after an oil painting of a kangaroo by English equine painter George Stubbs. The painting had been commissioned by the botanist Joseph Banks, who accompanied James Cook on his 1770 voyage to Australia. Upon his return to London, Banks organised for Stubbs to make a painting of a kangaroo – the first – although the artist had only a small collection of skins and bones to guide him in capturing the likeness of a creature so alien to European eyes. The specimens had been collected in Queensland by Cook’s crew and probably included the remains of a wallaby.
    The resulting oil painting was immediately copied in print and included in the official account of the voyage. The curious shape and pose of the kangaroo, as shown here, was reproduced many times and became the standard approach to representing the animal in the nineteenth century.      

    Alice Clanachan, Assistant Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs



  • [Book] AGSA 500.