Heroes of Colonial Encounters - Joseph Banks

Artist Helen S Tiernan (born 1952)

Date2017

Object number00055141

NamePainting

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 305 × 305 × 40 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionAn oil painting of Sir Joseph Banks by artist Helen S Tiernan as part of a series of works titled 'Heroes of Colonial Encounters'. Here Tiernan has chosen to present Banks in his older age, as president of the Royal Society and wearing the riband and insignia of the Order of the Bath. HistoryThis painting of Banks by Helen Tiernan is based on the 1810 portrait of Joseph Banks by Thomas Phillips when Banks was 67 years old. As part of a series of portraits that make up 'Heroes of Colonial Encounters', this portrait is part of Helen Tiernan exploration of the singular European view of colonial history and the way Indigenous peoples are depicted as the 'primitive' or 'other'. The portraits she paints of Bennelong, Bungaree, Colby, Bidgee Bidgee, Ballodere and Tommy sees them treated equally as their European contemporaries such as Cook, Joseph Banks, William Bligh, Arthur Philip and Matthew Flinders. All portraits are to hang together on the same wall, equally ornate, equal in style and equal in history. SignificanceSignificant in providing a dual perspective of histories and first encounters in Australia and through the Pacific. Most post-colonial art takes its subject from earlier colonial times, but this doesn’t mean their interests are purely historical. To the contrary, the point of post-colonialism is to show how many unresolved issues from colonial history are embedded in the present.