These engraved portraits are based on drawings made by artist Jacques Arago in late 1819, when Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet's expedition was in Sydney. Dispatched from France in 1817, the expedition visited Australia, East Timor, many Pacific islands and South America before Freycinet's ship was wrecked in the Falklands in February 1820. In New South Wales, Freycinet and other officers met the Dharawal senior men Timbery (1784-1840) (centre) and Broughton (1798-c. 1850) (bottom left) and others associated with explorers such as Charles Throsby and Alexander Berry. Broughton was the name given by Europeans to Toodood (also Toodwick and Toodwit), who acted as a guide and interpreter to Throsby and Berry in their explorations of Dharawal, Gundungurra and Yuin Country in the 1810s and 1820s. Members of the Timbery family are said to have been present when James Cook – and later Arthur Phillip – dropped anchor in Kamay (Botany Bay). The Timbery family have lived in the area for countless generations, preserving their stories of the arrival of the colonisers and continuing to practice Dharawal craft traditions.
Arago's drawings were engraved for inclusion in the official atlas of the Freycinet expedition, published in Paris in 1825.
Purchased 2015
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the
Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a
Reproduction request. For further information please contact
NPG Copyright.
