First Fleet artwork collection

Drawing of a fish in right profile against a plain background. The fish is of fusiform body shape and is predominantly coloured olive-brown, paler underneath. The head is painted with a gradated wash while the body is covered with scales represented by grey line and wash shading. The fins are red and blue except for the dorsal fin, which is red and green with yellow spines and blue teardrop markings on the green areas. The drawing is framed with a thick black ink line and a triple-banded border, the central band of which is coloured with a pink wash and contains the title. The signature and date are located in the inner band at lower right. Most of the outer band appears to have been lost through the drawing having been cropped.

• George Raper]
• The drawing is inscribed in black ink at bottom "SNAPPER of NORFOLK-ISLAND, Not more than 2/3ds Grown ~".
• The drawing is signed and dated at lower right "GEO: RapeR.# 1790 ~".
• The drawing is inscribed in pencil at lower left with the number "54", at top right "53", and on the reverse "7".
• The fish has been identified by John Calaby in Wheeler and Smith (1988) as the Sweetlip Emperor Lethrinus chrysostomus. ITIS and Fishbase list the current preferred taxonomic name for this species as Lethrinus miniatus.
• John Calaby notes the similarity of the drawing to one in the sketchbook by John Hunter in the National Library of Australia, Canberra, with the exception that while Raper aligns the fish horizontally on the page Hunter depicts it vertically, suspended from a fish hook. (Calaby, John (ed). The Hunter Sketchbook. Melbourne, National Library of Australia, 1989 p. 166.)
• Raper was stranded on Norfolk Island following the wrecking of the Sirius on 19th March 1790, returning to Port Jackson in the Supply on 11th February 1791. An account of this time can be found in Hunter, John, An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (London, 1793), pp.171-201.
• 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 15154
• Miss Eva Godman donated 1962
• Data sheet available.
• Hindwood, K.A. 'George Raper: an Artist of the First Fleet', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 50, Pt. 1, 1964 pp.32-57.
• 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 (pl.220, p. 208).