First Fleet artwork collection

Nocturnal fishing scene painted predominantly in brown-grey monochrome, with some pale washes of blue and yellow in the sky and water, and red detail for the fire. In the lower centre of the picture is a canoe, in which an aboriginal man stands pointing his fishing spear over the near-side of the boat. Behind him sits a woman with a paddle in her left hand and a flaming torch in her right, which she holds over the near-side of the boat above the water, apparently to attract the fish. The scene is framed by a rocky shore in the foreground and headlands to left and right in the middle distance. The moon is visible to the right of the sky, casting beams of light over the sea. The drawing is framed by a double-banded border, the inner band of which is filled with black wash. It is annotated in brown ink below the border.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is inscribed in blue pencil at top right with the number "58", which refers to the pre-1984 numbering system for the Watling collection.
• The drawing is annotated in brown ink at bottom, possibly in John White's hand, "A N. South wales Native strick.g fish by moon light while his wife paddles him along with a fire in the Canoe ready to broil the fish as caught."
• 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 12049
• 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 36, p. 47.)