Elegance in exile is an exhibition surveying the work of Richard Read senior, Thomas Bock, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and Charles Rodius: four artists who, though exiled to Australia as convicts, created many of the most significant and elegant portraits of the colonial period.
Thomas Bock, artist, printmaker and photographer, is believed to have been born at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, in 1790.
3 portraits in the collection
Purchased 2017
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG and Marilyn Darling AC 2013
As a convict Thomas Bock was required to sketch executed murders for science; as a free man, fashionable society portraits.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2018
Whether the result of misadventure or misdemeanour, many accomplished artists were transported to Australia where they ultimately left a positive mark on the history of art in this country.
Purchased 2001
Purchased 2003
Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.
Since 1993 Brisbane-based artist David M Thomas has investigated self identity through art works that encompass painting, text, audio, video and performance.
An interview with Australian astronaut, Dr. Andy Thomas, who describes the experience of space travel.
Thomas Lewis Atkinson (1817-c. 1890) is described in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists as 'one of the shining representatives of English engraving'.
1 portrait in the collection
Avril Thomas (b. 1956), artist, was born in Malaysia and went to boarding school in Scotland and Australia.
2 portraits in the collection
Rover Thomas (1926-1998), Kukatja-Wangkajunga artist, was born in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia and worked as a stockman and fencer before losing his employment upon the introduction of equal pay for indigenous workers in 1975.
1 portrait in the collection
Guboo Ted Thomas (1909–2002), land rights activist, was a tribal Elder of the Yuin nation and grew up on the Wallaga Lake Reserve near Narooma.
1 portrait in the collection