CURRENTLY on display in Bolton Court at Bendigo Art Gallery is a selection of six works on paper by renowned Australian artist Samuel Thomas Gill.
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S.T. Gill was born in Somerset, England, in 1818, the son of Reverend Samuel Gill, a Baptist minister.
Gill had some instruction in drawing during his schooling and gained employment as a draftsman and watercolour artist at Hubard Profile Gallery in London.
In 1839, Gill and his family migrated to Australia, and by 1840 Gill had established himself as a draftsman and watercolourist with premises in Gawler Place in Adelaide. There he spent the next decade building a name for himself as a documenter of early South Australian life.
In 1852 Gill travelled to site of the new rush, the Bendigo goldfields. Gill spent the next 20 years travelling around the Victoria goldfields and in to New South Wales, creating innumerable drawings of the regions – many of which were made into lithographs.
Twenty-four lithographed sketches by Gill, Victoria Gold Diggings and Diggers As They Are, were published in Melbourne and London in 1853, and in 1857 the book Victoria Illustrated was published which included engravings after Gill’s original drawings.
Gill now had premises in Collins Street, Melbourne, and was highly sought after and prosperous. However, after the 1870s he fell into obscurity and in 1880 he died on the steps of the Melbourne Post Office. At the time of his death Gill’s fortunes had waned and he was buried in an unmarked grave in the Melbourne General Cemetery. However, in 1913 his remains were disinterred and moved to a private plot with a grave marker paid for by the Historical Society of Victoria.
Gill’s interest in capturing vibrant images of the Victorian goldfields, the bush and the city of Melbourne has provided us with one of the most significant records of the colonial era.
This display of selected works from Bendigo Art Gallery’s collection coincides with a major exhibition which will go on display at the State Library of Victoria from July 17 to October 25, Australian sketchbook: Colonial life and the art of S.T. Gill.