Lot 49: THOMAS GRIFFITHS WAINEWRIGHT

A PAIR OF PORTRAITS OF EDWARD PAINE BUTLER AND MARTHA SARAH BUTLER

25.5 by 20.5cm (oval mounts)

Watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper

Art, antique and historical exhibition, City Hall, Hobart, 27 August -5 September 1931, cat. 60 (Edward) and 61 (Martha, as 'Portrait of Mrs Edward P. Butler')

Tony Anderson, 'Thomas Griffiths Wainewright', in Joan Kerr (ed.), The dictionary of Australian artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 828
G.T. Butler, Gamaliel Butler: a family history, Hobart: the author, 1961, illus. between pp. 12 and 13
Robert Crossland, Wainewright in Tasmania, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1954, pp. 142 (Martha), 145 (Edward), illus. plates XIX (Martha), XX (Edward)
Jonathan Curling, Janus Weathercock: the life of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright 1794-1847, London: Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, 1938, illus. plates XV (Edward), XVI (Martha)
J.N.D. Harrison, 'Gamaliel Butler', in Douglas Pike (ed.) Australian dictionary of biography vol. 1 (1788-1850 A-H), Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966, p. 191
C. MacLaurin, 'Thomas GriffithsWainewright', Art in Australia, 3rd series, no. 7, March 1924, illus. (n.p.)

Commissioned from the artist by Edward and Martha Butler, Tasmania; thence by descent to the present owner

T.G. Wainewright is one of the most talented but most elusive figures in early settler art history. Well-known Regency dandy, artist and littérateur, convicted forger and suspected poisoner, Wainewright was transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1837, where he disappeared into the 'moral sepulchre' (1) of penal servitude. Yet from this position of social and personal abjection he created some of the sweetest, freshest and most delicate portraits in colonial art, including such well-known images as The Cutmear twins (circa 1842, National Gallery of Australia), Julia Sorell (circa 1846, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) and The three graces (circa 1848, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery).

Most of his 56 surviving Australian works are held in public collections or by the descendants of the sitters; the present offering is of particular rarity and importance as a still-connected husband and wife pair. They also have a special interest by virtue of their connection to the celebrated Three graces. The subjects of that group are Georgiana, Ellen and Maria, youngest daughters of the prominent colonial solicitor, and property investor, Gamaliel Butler (1783-1852). The gentleman here is Edward Paine Butler (1811-1849), Gamaliel's eldest son, also a lawyer; the swan-necked, sleepy-eyed, ringletted woman fingering the chain of her jewelled brooch is Edward's wife Martha Sarah (née Asprey) (1810-?). Edward and Sarah both grew up in England, but emigrated to Van Diemen's Land soon after their marriage, arriving in Hobart Town shipwrecked but safe in July 1835. Edward joined his father's practice, which prospered; the family firm of Butler, McIntyre and Butler continues in Hobart to this day.

It may have been more than professional and family interests which brought the young couple out to the Antipodes; not long after his arrival it was known locally that Edward was suffering from consumption, and he may have seentherapeutic value in the sea voyage and in the more salubrious Australian climate. In the present portrait the bright eyes and somewhat hollow cheeks do suggest the grip of tuberculosis; the disease would claim his life just a few years later, at the age of 38.

A rare and exquisite pair, Edward and Sarah Butler are among the finest and best-preserved of Wainewright's Tasmanian watercolours. As Tony Anderson has observed, they are 'more fully worked and finely draughted than other portraits. They also retain the delicate tincture of flesh tones, whites, violets and, particularly, blues which have partly or fully faded in the remainder of his paintings.' (2)

We are most grateful to John McPhee for his assistance in cataloguing this work.

1. The phrase is Wainewright's own, from his 1844 petition for a Ticket of Leave.
2. Tony Anderson, 'Thomas Griffiths Wainewright', in Joan Kerr (ed.), The dictionary of Australian artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 828