A 170-year-old painting created by an unknown artist to lure free settlers to the Eyre Peninsula has been unearthed and donated to the Port Lincoln City Council.
Key points:
- State Member for Flinders Peter Treloar says he found the painting in an Adelaide art gallery
- It is still a mystery as to who painted the piece
- The painting was published in lithograph form in the London Illustrated news in 1848
The oil painting — completed in the 1840s — depicts Boston Island, Proper Bay and Billy Lights Point.
It is thought to have been painted in England as it was turned into a lithograph and printed in the Illustrated London News in 1848.
The retiring state Member for Flinders Peter Treloar bought the painting after it was discovered in an art gallery in Adelaide and has gifted it to the city of Port Lincoln.
“Port Lincoln was settled in 1839, and by the mid-1840s, the population had started to decline somewhat, and there really was a concerted effort to build the settlement here at Port Lincoln.”
The Illustrated London News article stated people were leaving because of the isolation from Adelaide and conflicts with the Indigenous people of the area.
It encouraged people to emigrate for the promising sheep farming prospects.
Mr Treloar said the article would have contributed to emigration to the region.
“The comment in the London Illustrated News was that by the 1840s, the population was back down to only about 30 families here, so it must have worked,” he said.
“Certainly from there on, people used to come not only to South Australia but to Port Lincoln as well.”
The Port Lincoln History Group has a copy of the print of the painting from the newspaper.
Mystery artist
It is still a mystery as to who painted the piece, which might have contributed to a good price for Mr Treloar.
“I got a bargain,” he said.
The oil painting is thought to have been done around the same time as famous watercolour artist George French Angas was creating his images.
