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拍品专文
Thomas James Lempriere is known to have painted several self portraits, including a miniature. These, and his other artistic efforts, are frequently mentioned in his diaries.
This portrait is most probably that painted in 1835. He writes of it, in French, in his diary on 29 October, 'Yesterday and today I continued with my portrait and finished it today. There is a diversity of opinion on the resemblance. Some tell me it looks like me, others cry out in the negative that it is less than a resemblance.'
This portrait shows the sitter, aged thirty-nine, a fleshy-faced man with a fine head of dark brown hair dressed en brosse. He wears a black frockcoat, white waistcoat and a fashionably high wing-collar with a black cravat. Confidently looking out at the viewer Lempriere has painted himself against a reddish-brown background without anything to distract the viewer from the subject, a confident and successful public servant.
The other portrait, in a private collection, illustrated in The dictionary of Australian artists, painters, sketchers, photographers, engravers to 1870, shows a man with greying hair and wearing a splendid uniform with epaulettes and probably dates from after 1844 when as assistant-commissary-general he could have worn such dress.
Thomas James Lempriere was born in Germany where his father was a banker and merchant. In 1803, with his father, he was interned by the French, but, because of his youth, sent home to his mother in England. He emigrated to Tasmania in 1822 and married the following year. He was soon pursuing mercantile activities, received a land grant and became a founding shareholder of the Bank of Van Diemen's Land. His parents and sisters followed him to Tasmania in 1825 and with his father formed the short-lived trading company of Lempriere and Co. which failed in 1827. Lempriere had left the family firm the year before to become a public servant, eventually becoming assistant commissary-general and in 1846 coroner for Tasmania. Recalled to England in 1849 he was immediately sent to Hong Kong as assistant commissary-general but was invalided home in 1851. He died on the voyage and is buried at Aden.
Lempriere was an enthusiastic amateur painter, who reputedly came to painting late in his career. He tried his hand at all subjects, but seems to have preferred portraiture. He was a keen naturalist and provided numerous specimens of plants and animals for English collectors. He was also a keen diarist and his observation of convict life was published as The Penal Settlements of Van Diemen's Land in the Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science during 1842 and 1846. His diaries and papers and paintings are held in the State Library of New South Wales, and the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Hobart. Other paintings by Lempriere are in the collections of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and the Allport Library.
This portrait is most probably that painted in 1835. He writes of it, in French, in his diary on 29 October, 'Yesterday and today I continued with my portrait and finished it today. There is a diversity of opinion on the resemblance. Some tell me it looks like me, others cry out in the negative that it is less than a resemblance.'
This portrait shows the sitter, aged thirty-nine, a fleshy-faced man with a fine head of dark brown hair dressed en brosse. He wears a black frockcoat, white waistcoat and a fashionably high wing-collar with a black cravat. Confidently looking out at the viewer Lempriere has painted himself against a reddish-brown background without anything to distract the viewer from the subject, a confident and successful public servant.
The other portrait, in a private collection, illustrated in The dictionary of Australian artists, painters, sketchers, photographers, engravers to 1870, shows a man with greying hair and wearing a splendid uniform with epaulettes and probably dates from after 1844 when as assistant-commissary-general he could have worn such dress.
Thomas James Lempriere was born in Germany where his father was a banker and merchant. In 1803, with his father, he was interned by the French, but, because of his youth, sent home to his mother in England. He emigrated to Tasmania in 1822 and married the following year. He was soon pursuing mercantile activities, received a land grant and became a founding shareholder of the Bank of Van Diemen's Land. His parents and sisters followed him to Tasmania in 1825 and with his father formed the short-lived trading company of Lempriere and Co. which failed in 1827. Lempriere had left the family firm the year before to become a public servant, eventually becoming assistant commissary-general and in 1846 coroner for Tasmania. Recalled to England in 1849 he was immediately sent to Hong Kong as assistant commissary-general but was invalided home in 1851. He died on the voyage and is buried at Aden.
Lempriere was an enthusiastic amateur painter, who reputedly came to painting late in his career. He tried his hand at all subjects, but seems to have preferred portraiture. He was a keen naturalist and provided numerous specimens of plants and animals for English collectors. He was also a keen diarist and his observation of convict life was published as The Penal Settlements of Van Diemen's Land in the Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science during 1842 and 1846. His diaries and papers and paintings are held in the State Library of New South Wales, and the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Hobart. Other paintings by Lempriere are in the collections of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and the Allport Library.