First Fleet artwork collection

Drawing of a bird crouching in a sandy hollow, its body pointing to the right and its head turned in profile to the left, against an unpainted sky. The bird is coloured predominantly in shades of grey with a white patch at the base of the bill and paler underparts, overlaid with hatched lines in darker tones. The wing is patterned with crescent-shaped dotted lines, and the primaries and tail feathers are outlined and shaded with black. The legs and feet are black-grey. The ground on which the bird crouches slopes upwards to the right and is represented by a pale yellow wash shaded dark grey-fawn towards the right, overlaid with grey serpentine lines. The brow of the hollow at the right is topped with grass represented by pale yellow, grey and brown hatched lines. 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. Most of the outer band appears to have been lost through the drawing having been cropped.

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• The drawing is inscribed in black ink at the bottom, in the outer band of the border, "MOUNT-PITT-BIRD ~ NORFOLK ISLAND ~ Natural Size -".
• The drawing is signed and dated at bottom right, in the inner band of the border, "GEO: RapeR.# 1790".
• The drawing is inscribed in pencil at the lower left and top right with the number "70", and on the reverse "60".
• The bird was identified by Hindwood (1964) as the Brown-headed Petrel, Pterodroma melanopus, and more recently by John Calaby in Wheeler and Smith (1988) as the Providence Petrel Pterodroma solandri.
• 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) General Library and Picture Library: Picture Library order number 15170
• Miss Eva Godman donated 1962
• Data sheet available.
• Whitley, G.P. 'The Doom of the Bird of Providence', Australian Zoologist, Vol. 8 1934 (pp.42-49).
• 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.187, p.175).