First Fleet artwork collection

Drawing of a bird in left profile, standing on a patch of ground represented by a yellow wash overlaid with pale red-brown markings, against a plain background. The bird is coloured predominantly in shades of brown overlaid with black hatched lines. The wing is overlaid with yellow-ochre horizontal bars, and the primaries are coloured red-brown with black bars. The legs are grey with black bands. 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, signature and date. 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 the bottom, in the outer band of the border, "GROUND-BIRD of LORD-HOWE-ISLAND * 1/4 Less, Natural Size - GEO: RapeR.# 1790 ~".
• The drawing is signed "GEO: RapeR" and dated 1790.
• The drawing is inscribed in pencil at lower left and right with the number "71", and on the reverse "59".
• The bird was identified by Hindwood (1964) as the Lord Howe Island Wood-hen, Tricholimnas sylvestris.
• John Calaby notes the similarity of this drawing to one in the sketchbook of drawings by John Hunter in the National Library of Australia, Canberra, but notes that neither Raper or Hunter landed on Lord Howe Island. (Calaby, John (ed). The Hunter Sketchbook. Melbourne, National Library of Australia, 1989 p. 222.)
• 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) General Library and Picture Library: Picture Library order number 15171
• Miss Eva Godman donated 1962
• Data sheet available.
• Hindwood, K.A. 'The Birds of Lord Howe Island', The Emu Vol. 40, Pt.1, 1940 pp.1-86.
• 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. 188, p.176).