First Fleet artwork collection

View with an Aboriginal man fishing from the shore, framed in tondo with a black ink border measuring 9.4 cm. in diameter. The figure is seen in profile facing to the left, holding a four-pronged fishing spear in his right hand and three fish in his left, and standing on a line of rocks projecting into the water from the right. The water is represented by a gradated blue wash overlaid with short grey horizontal brush marks. There are wooded headlands to left and right, with the trees represented by a green wash overlaid with fine horizontal lines. There is a band of pink near the horizon, and areas of blue wash around unpainted areas in the sky. The drawing is annotated in brown ink.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is inscribed in blue pencil at top right with the number "81", which refers to the pre-1984 numbering system for the Watling Collection.
• The drawing is annotated in brown ink at the bottom "A Native striking a Fish".
• 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 12072
• 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 40, p. 49.)