George French Angas
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George French Angas (25 April 1822 - 1886) was the eldest son of George Fife Angas, prominent in the establishment of the new colony of South Australia.
The young Angas was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne. Turning his back on his father’s world of commerce directed his life towards art and nature, studying natural history, art and lithography before embarking on his travels which enabled him to apply all areas of his studies. As a youth he studied drawing and lithography and in 1842 published A Ramble in Malta and Sicily illustrated with his own sketches.
Angas painted some of the earliest views of South Australia. Arriving in Adelaide in January 1844, and travelling with Sir George Grey he soon began an extensive series of journeys to the Murray 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 visited South Africa, working on a series of drawings and watercolours which were published in 1849 as Kafirs Illustrated. In 1847 Angas set sail for London, with his now substantial portfolio of Australian water colours. These were published in the notable view book South Australia Illustrated.
Angas was in Sydney when gold was first discovered in New South Wales near Bathurst. 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 returned to South Australia in 1860, but returned to England in later life where he published several books on Australia and Polynesia as well as illustrating accounts of exploration by John McDouall Stuart and John Forrest. He died in 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.
[edit] 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?).
[edit] Reference
- Serle, Percival (1949). “Angas, George French”, Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
