Port Essington Bark Paintings
The earliest surviving examples of Bark Painting were collected by Dr. Tilston at Port Essington, prior to his death there, early in 1849.
These bark paintings were collected for the Royal Navy’s Haslar Hospital Museum near Portsmouth, England. Established in the 1820s, Haslar displayed material from around the world, acquired during naval voyages. In the mid-19th century the bulk of the museum’s collections were transferred to other museums and collectors. More than 250 objects, some from Australia, were transferred to the British Museum. PM website
These two bark paintings at the British Museum are the earliest examples having been collected at Port Essington by Asst. Surgeon Richard Tilston prior to his death there in 1849. Luke Taylor notes that paired male/female figures can relate to Kunabibi and Wubar stories; see also 'love magic' paintings collected by R. & C. Berndt 'Sexual Behaviour in Western Arnhem Land', 1951. For a detailed analysis of bark painting from this region, see L. Taylor, 'Seeing the Inside. Bark Painting in Western Arnhem Land.' Oxford. 1996. PM Facebook
Earliest Bark Painting <1849 Pt. Essington - British Museum Reg. No.Oc1967,+.1
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British Museum
Registration number Oc1967,+.1 Asset number 1380882001 Description Painting on bark depicting a macropod (kangaroo?), a human-like male and a lizard. Dimensions Length: 55.50 centimetres Width: 31.50 centimetres Depth: 6.50 centimetres Curator's comments Found unnumbered in collections; apparently unregistered. Old label "Native drawing from the natives of Port Essington. Executed with their left hands". Specific meanings are not recorded for this painting, but the figures are likely to represent spirit ancestors. Bark paintings from the 1800s are rare. Tacon and Davies note that this piece 'closely resembles a 1960s work by Iwaidja artist Paddy Compass Nambatbara, who was born not long after most early bark-paintings from the region were collected' and is comparable to some pieces in the Macleay Museum (p.83). Location Not on display Exhibited: 1972-1982 23 Jun-28 Feb, London, BM, Museum of Mankind, The Aborigines of Australia 2015 23 Apr-2 Aug, London, BM, G35, Indigenous Australia: enduring civilisation Using this image Sorry, this image is not available for download. For more information please contact British Museum images. |
Earliest Bark Painting <1849 Pt. Essington - British Museum Reg. No. Oc1973,Q.17
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British Museum
Registration number Oc1973,Q.17 Asset number 1528863001 Description Painting on bark showing two anthropomorphic figures in white pigment. The figure on the left appears to be female with breasts depicted; the right hand figure is male showing male genitalia. Both figures have tongues sticking out. Dimensions Length: 93.50 centimetres Width: 31 centimetres Curator's comments As outlined by Simpson (2020:244-245), when Tilston died at Port Essington in 1849, he left his collection in his will to Haslar Hospital Museum. Weighing 'a ton', the collection was taken from Port Essington to Sydney in HMS Meander; it stayed in the commissariat stores for almost a year until it was arranged by another naval surgeon WHB Jones for it to be sent to Haslar, where it arrived in 1851. For discussion of this painting and other related back-to-back figures in rock art, see: Taçon, P., May, S., Goldhahn, J., Taylor, L., Brady, L., Ressel, A., . . . Maralngurra, G. (2022). Extraordinary Back-to-Back Human and Animal Figures in the Art of Western Arnhem Land, Australia: One of the World's Largest Assemblages. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 1-14. doi:10.1017/S0959774322000129 Luke Taylor (email 24/10/2014) notes that paired male/female figures can relate to Kunabibi and Wubar stories; see also 'love magic' paintings collected by R. & C. Berndt 'Sexual Behaviour in Western Arnhem Land', 1951. Exhibited: 2015 23 Apr-2 Aug, London, BM, G35, Indigenous Australia: enduring civilisation 2015-2016 27 Nov-28 Mar, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, Encounters Using this image Sorry, this image is not available for download. For more information please contact British Museum images |
For a detailed analysis of bark painting from this region, see L. Taylor, 'Seeing the Inside. Bark Painting in Western Arnhem Land.' Oxford. 1996.
For a discussion of this and other early paintings on bark from this region see Paul S C Tacon and Susan M Davies 'Transitional traditions: "Port Essington" bark-paintings and the European discovery of Aboriginal aesthetics'. Australian Aboriginal Studies 2004 (2):72-86.
For a discussion of this and other early paintings on bark from this region see Paul S C Tacon and Susan M Davies 'Transitional traditions: "Port Essington" bark-paintings and the European discovery of Aboriginal aesthetics'. Australian Aboriginal Studies 2004 (2):72-86.
Bibliographic references
Sculthorpe et al. 2015 / Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation (p.135, fig.16)
National Museum of Australia 2015 / Encounters. Revealing Stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Objects from the British Museum (p.77)
Simpson 2020 / The Royal Navy in Indigenous Australia, 1795-1855. Maritime Encounters and British Museum Collections. (pp.245-247)
Sculthorpe et al. 2015 / Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation (p.135, fig.16)
National Museum of Australia 2015 / Encounters. Revealing Stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Objects from the British Museum (p.77)
Simpson 2020 / The Royal Navy in Indigenous Australia, 1795-1855. Maritime Encounters and British Museum Collections. (pp.245-247)
​Royal Haslar, a former Royal Navy hospital - a Tatler image
Royal Haslar, a former Royal Navy hospital near Gosport, Hampshire, is being transformed into a £200 million waterside village boasting luxury housing, restaurants, business premises and a new heritage museum, all set within landscaped grounds. Parker Bowles, who was married to the present Queen from 1973-1995, is chairman of Haslar Developments Ltd., which is spearheading the project. Courtesy of The Tatler.
