George French Angas
Encyclopedia
George French Angas was an English explorer, naturalist and painter.
He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne
, England
, the eldest son of George Fife Angas
, prominent in the establishment of the new colony of South Australia
. Despite showing remarkable talent in drawing, he was placed in a London business house by his father. He left on a tour of Europe and in 1842 published his first book, "Rambles in Malta and Sicily". As a result of this experience, he turned his back on the world of commerce, and directed his training towards a study of natural history, anatomical drawing and lithography. Embarking on his travels, he was soon to find his acquired skills extremely useful.
Angas painted some of the earliest views of South Australia. Arriving in Adelaide
in January 1844, he joined Sir George Grey
on an expedition into the interior. He soon began an extensive series of journeys to the Murray River
lakes, Barossa Valley
, Fleurieu Peninsula
and the South East, presenting his impressions of the newly established colony – its inhabitants, landscape, and its flora and fauna. Following a trip to New Zealand
he returned to South Australia
in 1845 and travelled to Port Lincoln. In the following year he returned for a short while to England.
Angas' next journey in 1846 was to South Africa
, where he spent two years in Natal
and the Cape
, working on a series of drawings and watercolours which were published in 1849 as The Kafirs Illustrated. In this book were views of Cape Town
, Durban
, Wynberg
, Genadendal
, Paarl
and Somerset West and plates depicting the local ethnic groups such as Hottentots, Malays
and Zulus.
Angas married Alicia Mary Moran in 1849, the marriage producing four daughters.
In 1853 Angas was appointed to a position at the Australian Museum
in Sydney
, eventually becoming Director and staying a total of seven years. Angas was in Sydney
when gold was first discovered near Bathurst, New South Wales
. Travelling there to record the gold diggings he executed a number of drawings of the scenes that he found. These were published in Sydney
and subsequently in London
. Angas was represented at the 1855 Paris exposition
with five other Australian artists including Conrad Martens
, Frederick Terry and Adelaide Ironside, the first time Australian artists had been represented at a major overseas display. Angas returned to South Australia
in 1860, and finally went back to England
in 1863. Angas published several books on Australia
and Polynesia
as well as illustrating accounts of exploration by John McDouall Stuart
and John Forrest
, and contributed significantly to conchology
with his descriptions and illustrations. Many legends surround a single sketch from that period, of an unknown species labeled treasurefruit, which was later referenced by Ernest Hemingway
in an early unpublished essay on elixirs. Angas died in London
on 8 October 1886.
Many of George French Angas's original watercolours are held in National Library of Australia
, as well as in a number of South Australian institutions: Art Gallery of South Australia
; University of Adelaide
; South Australian Museum
; and Royal Geographical Society of South Australia. The State Library of New South Wales
has four letters written by Angas - the first is addressed to his publisher, Joseph Hogarth, and is dated 31 January 1848, requesting that two drawings be released to the lithographer James William Giles (1801–1870), and for an advance in payment. The second, dated 28 July 1849 discusses problems experienced by overseas subscribers in the delivery of Kafirs Illustrated. The third letter instructs the publisher to send a plate from his sister's copy of Kafirs to the bookbinder, Mr Proudfoot, in George Street. The final, dated 10 February 1875 is addressed to Stephen WIlliam Silver (1819–1905), the London shipping merchant and book collector, and deals with matters relating to the Zoological Society and the Royal Geographical Society
.
The African antelope, Nyala
(Tragelaphus angasii), was named in his honour.
He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the eldest son of George Fife Angas
George Fife Angas
George Fife Angas was an English businessman and banker who, from England, played a significant part in the formation and establishment of the Colony of South Australia. He established the South Australian Company and was its founding chairman of the board of directors...
, prominent in the establishment of the new colony of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. Despite showing remarkable talent in drawing, he was placed in a London business house by his father. He left on a tour of Europe and in 1842 published his first book, "Rambles in Malta and Sicily". As a result of this experience, he turned his back on the world of commerce, and directed his training towards a study of natural history, anatomical drawing and lithography. Embarking on his travels, he was soon to find his acquired skills extremely useful.
Angas painted some of the earliest views of South Australia. Arriving in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
in January 1844, he joined Sir George Grey
George Edward Grey
Sir George Grey, KCB was a soldier, explorer, Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony , the 11th Premier of New Zealand and a writer.-Early life and exploration:...
on an expedition into the interior. He soon began an extensive series of journeys to the Murray River
Murray River
The Murray River is Australia's longest river. At in length, the Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains and, for most of its length, meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between New South Wales and Victoria as it...
lakes, Barossa Valley
Barossa Valley
The Barossa Valley is a major wine-producing region and tourist destination of South Australia, located 60 km northeast of Adelaide. It is the valley formed by the North Para River, and the Barossa Valley Way is the main road through the valley, connecting the main towns on the valley floor of...
, Fleurieu Peninsula
Fleurieu Peninsula
The Fleurieu Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Adelaide in South Australia, Australia. It was named after the French explorer and hydrographer Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu by the French explorer Nicolas Baudin as he mapped the south coast of Australia in 1802.Towns of interest in the...
and the South East, presenting his impressions of the newly established colony – its inhabitants, landscape, and its flora and fauna. Following a trip to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
he returned to South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
in 1845 and travelled to Port Lincoln. In the following year he returned for a short while to England.
Angas' next journey in 1846 was to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, where he spent two years in Natal
Natal Province
Natal, meaning "Christmas" in Portuguese, was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Province included the bantustan of KwaZulu...
and the Cape
Cape
Cape can be used to describe any sleeveless outer garment, such as a poncho, but usually it is a long garment that covers only the back half of the wearer, fastening around the neck. They were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon, and have had periodic...
, working on a series of drawings and watercolours which were published in 1849 as The Kafirs Illustrated. In this book were views of Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
, Wynberg
Wynberg, Cape Town
Wynberg is a southern suburb of the City of Cape Town in Western Cape, South Africa. It is situated between Plumstead and Kenilworth, and is a main transport hub for the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town.- Geography :...
, Genadendal
Genadendal
Genadendal is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, built on the site of the oldest mission station in the country.-Location:Genadendal is approximately 90 minutes drive east of Cape Town in the Riviersonderend Mountains....
, Paarl
Paarl
Paarl is a town with 191,013 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its the third oldest European settlement in the Republic of South Africa and the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington...
and Somerset West and plates depicting the local ethnic groups such as Hottentots, Malays
Malay race
The concept of a Malay race was proposed by the German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach , and classified as the brown race. Since Blumenbach, many anthropologists have rejected his theory of five races, citing the enormous complexity of classifying races...
and Zulus.
Angas married Alicia Mary Moran in 1849, the marriage producing four daughters.
In 1853 Angas was appointed to a position at the Australian Museum
Australian Museum
The Australian Museum is the oldest museum in Australia, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology. It features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology, and anthropology...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, eventually becoming Director and staying a total of seven years. Angas was in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
when gold was first discovered near Bathurst, New South Wales
Bathurst, New South Wales
-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...
. Travelling there to record the gold diggings he executed a number of drawings of the scenes that he found. These were published in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and subsequently in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Angas was represented at the 1855 Paris exposition
Exposition Universelle (1855)
The Exposition Universelle of 1855 was an International Exhibition held on the Champs-Elysées in Paris from May 15 to November 15, 1855. Its full official title was the Exposition Universelle des produits de l'Agriculture, de l'Industrie et des Beaux-Arts de Paris 1855.The exposition was a major...
with five other Australian artists including Conrad Martens
Conrad Martens
Conrad Martens was an English-born landscape painter active in Australia from 1835.-Life and work:Conrad Martens' father was a merchant who came originally to London as Austrian Consul; Conrad was born in "Crutched Friars" near Tower Hill...
, Frederick Terry and Adelaide Ironside, the first time Australian artists had been represented at a major overseas display. Angas returned to South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
in 1860, and finally went back to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1863. Angas published several books on Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
as well as illustrating accounts of exploration by John McDouall Stuart
John McDouall Stuart
John McDouall Stuart was one of the most accomplished and famous of all Australia's inland explorers. Stuart led the first successful expedition to traverse the Australian mainland from south to north and return, and the first to do so from a starting point in South Australia, achieving this...
and John Forrest
John Forrest
Sir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....
, and contributed significantly to conchology
Conchology
Conchology is the scientific or amateur study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of molluscs, however malacology studies molluscs as whole organisms, not just their shells. Conchology pre-dated malacology as a field of study. It includes the study of land and...
with his descriptions and illustrations. Many legends surround a single sketch from that period, of an unknown species labeled treasurefruit, which was later referenced by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
in an early unpublished essay on elixirs. Angas died in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 8 October 1886.
Many of George French Angas's original watercolours are held in National Library of Australia
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...
, as well as in a number of South Australian institutions: Art Gallery of South Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia
The Art Gallery of South Australia , located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace in Adelaide, is the premier visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of over 35,000 works of art, making it, after the National Gallery of Victoria, the largest state...
; University of Adelaide
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
; South Australian Museum
South Australian Museum
The South Australian Museum is a museum in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultural precinct of the Adelaide Parklands.-History:...
; and Royal Geographical Society of South Australia. The State Library of New South Wales
State Library of New South Wales
The State Library of New South Wales is a large public library owned by the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Macquarie Street, Sydney near Shakespeare Place...
has four letters written by Angas - the first is addressed to his publisher, Joseph Hogarth, and is dated 31 January 1848, requesting that two drawings be released to the lithographer James William Giles (1801–1870), and for an advance in payment. The second, dated 28 July 1849 discusses problems experienced by overseas subscribers in the delivery of Kafirs Illustrated. The third letter instructs the publisher to send a plate from his sister's copy of Kafirs to the bookbinder, Mr Proudfoot, in George Street. The final, dated 10 February 1875 is addressed to Stephen WIlliam Silver (1819–1905), the London shipping merchant and book collector, and deals with matters relating to the Zoological Society and the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
.
The African antelope, Nyala
Nyala
The Nyala is a Southern African antelope. It is a spiral-horned dense-forest antelope that is uncomfortable in open spaces and is most often seen at water holes. Nyalas live alone or in small family groups of up to 10 individuals.The male stands up to 110 cm , the female is up to 90 cm ...
(Tragelaphus angasii), was named in his honour.
Publications
- A Catalogue of paintings by George French Angas, illustrative of the natives and scenery of New Zealand and South Australia: also sketches in Brazil, Cape Verde Islands, New South Wales, &c. &c. (London?: s.n., 1846).
- George French Angas, South Australia illustrated (London: Thomas M'Lean, 1847).
- George French Angas, The New Zealanders illustrated (London: Thomas M'Lean, 1847).
- George French Angas, The Kafirs illustrated in a series of drawings taken among the Amazulu, Amaponda and Amakosa tribes (London: J. Hogarth, 1849).
- George French Angas, Six views of the gold field of Ophir, at Summerhill and Lewis Ponds Creeks (Sydney: Woolcott and Clarke, 1851).
- George French Angas, Australia: a popular account of its physical features, inhabitants and productions, with the history of its colonization (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1865?).
- George French Angas, Polynesia: a popular description of the physical features, inhabitants, natural history and productions of the islands of the Pacific. With an account of their discovery, and of the progress of civilization and christianity amongst them (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1866?).
- 1846 South Australia
- 1847 Savage life and scenes in Australia and New Zealand : being an artist's impressions of countries and people at the antipodes (Lithographers Day & Haghe, Publishers Smith Elders & Co., Adelaide)
- 1849 The Kafirs Illustrated (London: Hogarth Press)
- 1849 Description of the Barossa Range and Its Neighbourhood in South Australia (Smith, Elder & Co., London)
External links
- http://www.nla.gov.au/catalogue/pictures/Angas' works in the National Library of AustraliaNational Library of AustraliaThe National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...
, CanberraCanberraCanberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
] - Dictionary of Australian Artists