Skip to main content
Advanced Search
HMS BRAMBLE anchored in Louisiade Archipelago
HMS BRAMBLE anchored in Louisiade Archipelago

HMS BRAMBLE anchored in Louisiade Archipelago

Artist (English - Australian, 1817 - 1894)
Date1849
Object number00008551
NamePainting
MediumWatercolour, pencil, paper
DimensionsOverall: 247 × 253 mm
Mount / Matt size (A Fini Mount): 275 × 382 mm
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
Collections
DescriptionThis tranquil watercolour by Oswald Walter Brierly depicts the survey vessel HMS BRAMBLE anchored at Chaumont Island (renamed Brierly Island in 1852) in the Louisade Archipelago (off south-east Papua New Guinea) during the RATTLESNAKE expedition. The vessel is rigged for hot weather with wind shutes, drying sails and washing hanging in the rigging.HistoryOswald Brierly was born in Chester, England in 1817 and after studying art and navigation he came to Australia on Benjamin Boyd's yacht the WANDERER. He belongs to the great tradition of British ship-board artists who sailed on voyages of exploration, extending European knowledge of Australia and the South Pacific. Brierly managed Boyd's whaling station at Twofold Bay from 1842 until 1848. Captain Owen Stanley sailed the schooner BRAMBLE from Port Jackson to Twofold Bay in 1847, where he first met Brierly. A year later they met again in Sydney, and Brierly made a two year voyage with Captain Stanley on HMS RATTLESNAKE recording surveys of the Great Barrier Reef, Torres Strait, parts of New Guinea and the Louisiade Archipelago. Brierly returned to Sydney in 1848 and then sailed with Henry Keppel on HMS MEANDER to New Zealand, Tahiti, South America and Britain. Brierly visited Australia again in 1867-1868 when he accompanied the first Royal visit of HRH Prince Alfred Duke of Edinburgh on HMS GALATEA during its royal tour. Brierly exhibited with the Royal Academy between 1839 and 1872 when he was elected to the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours.SignificanceThis work is significant as a depiction of the surveying vessel BRAMBLE drawn by the artist Oswald Brierly who sailed aboard HMS RATTLESNAKE as part of the survey of northern Australia and the Torres Strait.