First Fleet artwork collection

Half-length portrait of an Aboriginal man on a plain background, the figure underlined in black ink. A sword or club of pale yellow overlaid with a pattern of grey wavy lines rises up across his body to the right. His jaw-length hair is decorated with bone ornaments. His body is painted with a pair of white lines along his upper arms and down across his chest, and his chest and upper arms are marked with black lines representing cicatrices. The drawing is annotated in brown ink and framed by a pencil border.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is inscribed in blue pencil at top right with the number "65", which refers to the pre-1984 numbering system for the Watling Collection.
• The drawing is annotated in brown ink at bottom "A Method used by the Natives of New South Wales of ornamenting themselves, But when on their Hostile excursions they are ornamented with red."
• The drawing is unsigned and undated.
• 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 12056
• 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 56, p. 40.)