First Fleet artwork collection

The drawing represents an encounter between British colonists and Australian aborigines at Manly Cove on 7th September 1790, when Governor Arthur Phillip was wounded with a spear. The incident is depicted as if seen from the open sea looking inland, so that the figures are very small. The bay forms a semi-circle with a sandy beach containing several camp fires backed by dense woodland, flanked to left and right by rocky headlands. A red and white rowing boat containing five Colonists is depicted just off-shore, alongside a grey shape which is presumably the beached whale. Several of the colonists are depicted towards the centre of the beach, including Phillip with the spear embedded in his shoulder, being attended to by another figure while to the right another discharges a musket. Twenty-seven Aborigines are depicted running and hiding amongst the trees to left and right. The sea reflects the colours of the sky and is represented by a gradated wash of blue with a band of yellow, and overlaid in the foreground by grey horizontal lines. The drawing is framed by a single-banded ink border, and annotated in brown ink in a panel below the drawing.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is inscribed in blue pencil at top right with the number "33", which refers to the pre-1984 numbering system for the Watling Collection.
• The drawing is annotated in brown ink at bottom, "Mr. Waterhouse endeavouring to break the Spear after Govr Phillips was wounded by Wil-le-me-ring where the Whale was cast on shore in Manly Cove."
• The drawing is unsigned and undated.
• The composition is almost identical to that of Watling drawing number 23, which represents the same incident.
• An account of the incident depicted is related by Watkin Tench in his Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, originally published in 1793 (see Flannery, Tim (ed.). Watkin Tench: 1788. The Text Publishing Company, Melbourne, 1996, pp.134-141).
• The author of this catalogue record is Suzanne Stenning.
• By permission of the trustees of the Natural History Museum (London).
• Two sets of transparencies held in the Natural History Museum (London) Zoology Library and Picture Library: Picture Library order number 12024
• James Lee of Kensington : purchased ; 1902
• Data sheet available.
• Wheeler, A. and Smith, B, (eds.) The Art of the First Fleet and other early Australian Drawings. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1988. (Plate 64, p. 66.)
• Dixson, W. 'Some Early Picture of Sydney', The Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and Proceedings Vol. 19, 1923, pp. 198-204.