First Fleet artwork collection

Harbour scene with an Aboriginal man, woman and child paddling a canoe which has fishing spears in the rear and a camp fire burning in the centre. The two adults are facing forwards, looking out towards the viewer, while the child is depicted in back view, looking out to sea. The water is represented by a gradated wash of blue through yellow and pink to blue again, overlaid with short horizontal grey brush marks in the foreground. The horizon is low, with a low-lying island to the left and a headland to the right, so that the sky occupies approximately three-quarters of the picture. The sky is represented by a gradated wash of pale blue through yellow to pink on the horizon. The drawing is framed by a single ink-line border, and annotated in brown ink below the border.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is inscribed in blue pencil at top right with the number "36", which refers to the pre-1984 numbering system for the Watling Collection.
• The drawing is annotated in brown ink at bottom centre "A Canoe of New South Wales."
• 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 12027
• 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 45, p. 53.)