Frameworks for making art

The scientific and political basis of both expeditions was empirical observation. (Empirical = based on direct observation). Information was recorded in a variety of forms; maps, logbooks, diaries, drawings, watercolours. And subsequently oil paintings.

The ships carried a great deal of scientific equipment to assist in this task; telescopes, sextants, quadrants, artificial horizons, theodolites, compasses, thermometers, barometers. There were microscopes, blotting papers for pressing plant specimens, greenhouses, pens for wild animals and an array of artist’s materials including quills, pencils, tablets of paint, brushes, reams of paper, spectacles, a camera obscura and perhaps a camera lucida.

The artists relied on a variety of scientific equipment. Bauer and Lesueur relied on microscopic detail to assist in the classification of the natural world. Westall and Petit used the telescope to add picturesque detail to the long-distance view. Bauer and possible Lesueur also utilised the camera obscura and perhaps the newly invented camera lucida.

In the late eighteenth century there was an emergence of a new ‘planetary consciousness’, one which conceived the natural world as a finite and knowable entity. Europe in the later part of the eighteenth century was obsessed by the idea that the natural world could be ‘tamed ‘ by a unified classificatory system. Seafaring voyages of discovery usually carried teams of ‘scientific gentlemen’ whose role it was to discover and classify species, which were new to European science.

Visual imagery played a part in acquiring such knowledge. This resulted in detailed natural-history watercolours and depictions of indigenous peoples as well as the emergence of new maps, coastal profiles and landscape paintings. The scientist artist saw their task as using the Linnaean system of classification to ‘fill in the gaps’ in nature’s plan. There certainly worked hard at this task. When the Investigator arrived at the south-western corner of what now is Western Australia, fewer than 400 species from the whole continent had ever been described. Three weeks later some 500 specimens had been collected, most of them previously unknown.

During this time there was a shift in the model of what an artist was. In the Renaissance the artist was seen as an inventor and enhancer (or improver) of nature. This is expressed in the terms disegno and invenzione. In the later eighteenth century the model was that of an empirical quest for accurate visual information. One commentator (Goethe) said of Bauer’s work, " Nature is revealed, Art Concealed".

But it wasn’t as simple as art v. science. It was a period where artist-illustrators and scientists worked together to more accurately record the natural world. There had a close working relationship; between Bauer and the botanist Robert Brown and between Lesueur and the zoologist François Peron. Bauer’s skills as an illustrator were used and encouraged by Brown. Lesueur’s skills were polished under Peron’s close supervision.

This is evident when it is realised that Bauer painted more plants than animals and Lesueur ignored plants altogether. 

Artist at that time were required to have a good knowledge of zoology and botany.

The artist had to be able to work quickly and efficiently. The artist also had to be able to go ashore and collect specimens. Peron taught Lesueur how to collect specimens (living and dead), how to preserve them or to keep them alive. Bauer developed a ‘paint by numbers' system, which involved designing a colour chart of one thousand shades and allocating a number to each shade (see his blue- swimmer crab drawing and painting).

One of the challenges facing the artist was the fact that specimens faded in colour, quite rapidly. Lesueur worked quickly and as accurately as possible but his output compared to Bauer’s was limited.

Why draw when a live (or dead) specimen could be used to refer to? The best natural-history drawings capture the subject while it still alive and existing in its natural habitat.

Dead specimens often lose their shape, colour and texture.

The artist can offer an interpretation – even a portrait of the creature’s personality. Bauer gives his creatures a quiet dignity Lesueur portrays his animals as animated – always doing something or on the go. By introducing additional environmental information the artist can give more information about the creature’s habits (like what does it eat or where does it like to live?)

Lesueur learnt from Peron an idea that creatures are shaped by their environment, so he was keen to put the animals in an extended setting. Compare his approach to Bauer’s. Lesueur as also able to create a strong sense of the creatures being 3D and occupying 3D space.

The illustration also has the advantage (over the original) because it can reveal what the naked eye cannot see. Consider the smallest of plant structures enlarged in a drawing but almost impossible to see in real life. This was particularly important in making classifications according to the Linnaean system which focussed on the plant’s sexual organs.

It is interesting to note that while Bauer showed plants in dissected detail, he rarely showed animals in the same way.

Like the natural history artists the landscape artists were an important part of the scientific team. The views they created were part of offering a ‘commanding’ view of territory, which was about to be claimed, or which offered good prospects for settlement.

Some of Westall’s shore profiles would have been made as aids for future navigators.

He worked directly under the supervision of Flinders to document the coastline. These views were linked to the captain’s running survey as recorded in the ship’s log.

The issue particularly fro the French artists was; How do you show a fellow human ‘scientifically? At the late part of the eighteenth century there were few traditions or conventions for doing this. People were not specimens to be trapped or shot. So how to build up a relationship based on trust and respect?

Unlike Westall’s largely decorative interpretations of Aboriginal figures Petit paid close attention to head and body shape, colour of skin, body position, sexual positions, dwellings and artefacts. He even obtained drawings by Aboriginal artists and took them back to France.

Drawing activities

Try some of these pre or post exhibition visit

Camera Obscura

The Camera Obscura was a commonly used device for making accurate drawings of landscape and architectural subjects. A number of drawings in The Encounter were probably developed using this method. Try making one. Take a light-fast box (around the size of a shoebox. Cut a rectangular section out of one end and tape a piece of tracing paper over this cut-out section. At the opposite end make a pinhole. Make sure that the lid is fixed firmly and possibly taped to seal the inside from light. Some dark cloth draped over the tracing paper end will help the projected image to be seen more clearly. The ‘camera’ will now record an image of anything it is aimed at. A pencil tracing can be removed when finished to be used in ‘working up’ the basic sketch into a ‘finished’ drawing or painting. Another piece of tracing paper can be taped into place and other subject ‘captured’.

Go the grid

From Renaissance times artists often used a viewing grid to make quick, accurate drawings of outdoor subjects. To try this make or use a frame (eg an old picture-frame) about 30 x 20 cm. is a good size. It could be cut from a piece of thick cardboard (with adult help). Use black wool or thick cotton to glue or sew into place a set of rectangular pr square grid lines. Using a computer or ruler and pen, draw a copy of this grid. Make more than one copy for later use. Set the framed grid up against a window or propped up out of door and use the grid references to make accurate sketches of subjects.

Painting by numbers

In The Encounter exhibition there are a number of watercolours by Bauer, which have been made using a ‘paint by numbers’ method. This involved making up a colour chart, which contained all the colours, required to paint natural subjects. As you can imagine this included many shades of different colours. Each colour was given a number. Once a specimen was presented, the artist made an outline drawing of the key parts of the creature, plant or scene than allocated numbers on this sketch according to the colour of the original subject. To try this you will need to make up a colour chart by either mixing a full range of colour shades or seeing hoe far you can extend the range of a computer paint program. Choose a subject with limited colours or strong designs to start with and the work up to something really challenging – such as a blue-swimmer crab!

Wash up

To be a really good landscape watercolourist you had to know how to make washes. Washes were particularly good for illustrating the sky and clouds. Because these subjects are made up of shades and tones artists had to be able to get their colours to ‘wash’ across the paper in such a way that the colours changes easily ( and without lines) from a lighter to a darker shade. To try this out. Take a sheet of drawing paper ( out of a sketch pad – paper which is thicker than photocopy paper.). Dampen the paper thoroughly with a clean damp sponge than fasten the paper onto a pie of board using brown paper adhesive tape on all edges. When the paper dries it will pull as tight and flat as a drum. Now it can be worked on using wash techniques. It is trial and error time. Try running a damp sponge across an area of paper than apply some paint ( water-based) to see what the effect will be.

Wet an area of paper. Apply a concentrated amount of colour pigment and tip the support so that the colour runs into the wet area.

Blotting with a sponge will help to control the flow and ‘bleeding’ and will also give some special effects

By experimenting in this way you will soon discover how to control the different rate of flow. Very soon you’ll have those clouds racing across the sky.

Production line

Experience the process of making pictures about a land far away. To do this a series of teams will need to be formed.

These teams are:

Scientists, Gatherers, Explorer-Artists, Illustrator-Engravers, Editor-Publishers

The Scientists come up with the ‘shopping list’ of the kinds of things, which should be collected, and how they would like this information presented. The on-board scientists will also have to think about how best to preserve the specimens.

The Gatherers collect specimens and bring them to the Artists.

The Artists make sketches of these items and sometimes give written instructions to the Engravers back In Paris or London)

The Illustrator-Engravers ‘work up’ these sketches into finely detailed images ready for printing (in a classroom this ‘working up’ could be done using a computer to apply special effects and backgrounds)

The Editor-Publishers produce the book (or website)

The basic rule is that the Illustrators and Editors haven’t been to this far away land and haven’t actually seen the real thing. So they get to use their imagination.

In playing this production-line game complexity factors such as:

You must complete 10 sketches before night falls or the table rolling around in high seas, could be added.

Consider giving it a contemporary twist by publishing on a school or home website rather than feeling restricted to the production of a book. Or do both.

Artist’s cabin

Set aside a corner of a classroom and make it into an artist’s sea cabin. There will be room for a bed, a chair and a small table and perhaps a box to keep things in. Your basic drawing equipment will be kept in a box. You will also have a smaller case for carrying while exploring and sketching on land. This cabin box should have a variety of pencils (lead and coloured), small paint containers, a variety of brushes and of drawing paper. You’ll also need a folder to keep finished sketches in and a sketchbook. If you want some authenticity try fixing tennis ballot middle underneath of a board, which acts as the tabletop. As it rolls around it will give you some idea of how difficult it was to work while at sea.

Experiment

In the exhibition you can find a number of different ways artists have made marks on paper. To experiment you will need to try a number of pencils, some with soft lead and others with hard. Compare making colours with coloured pencils compared to mixing paint. Notice how some artists have put thin layers of dark paint over bright/light areas of colour. Some artists use stippling, that is, work the point of the brush up and down to create a special texture.

Magnification

Use a magnifying glass to explore the hidden world and designs of natural things

Blow up

Make drawings of views through the magnifying glass then enlarge them considerably using a grid system

In the catalogue and the wall labels a precise system of identification applies as follows:

Dimensions are given in centimeters, height before width; for works on paper they refer to the sheet size unless otherwise stated. Works are not signed or dated unless stated. Museum accession numbers are provided after the inscriptions.

Natural History names

In the eighteenth century, under the influence of Linnaeus, the system of binomial nomenclature came into general use to name plants and animals. The first word indicates the genus; the second, the species. If the species name is unknown the abbreviation ‘sp.’ is written after the genus name. The Latin names used here are the most up-to-date, and may therefore differ from the names given in museum listings and previous publications.

In accordance with scientific convention, the Latin name is followed by the name of the naturalist who named the species. Botanical and zoological rules differ:

• for animals, the name of the naturalist is followed by the date of publication of that name. A name not enclosed in brackets, as for example the bandicoot "Perameles bougainville Quoy & Gaimard, 1824", indicates that in 1824 Quoy & Gaimard were the first to describe this particular animal. If the name is enclosed in brackets, then there is an earlier name but it has been changed to the present one by the person named; thus, the crab "Portunus pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1766)", was earlier described as Cancer pelagicus by Linnaeus.
• for plants, if only one naturalist’s name appears, then this is the person who first described and named the plant and its name has not changed since that time. If there are two names, with the first in brackets, as happens with "Eremophila scoparia (Robert Brown) Ferdinand von Mueller", this tells us that Robert Brown was the first to describe this plant, in this case as Pholidia scoparia. Ferdinand Mueller later recognised that it was really an Eremophila and in transferring the name to that genus, by botanical rules he had to keep the original species name—hence Eremophila scoparia.

A common name, where one is known, is provided below the scientific name.

The date and place given refer to the artist’s execution of the work (which is often different from the date and place when and where the specimen was collected and first drawn).

The order in which the drawings are presented within each category are, as far as possible, in order of execution by the artist. The field drawings therefore follow the chronology of each voyage, as far as can be ascertained. When the provenance of individual specimens is not known, an alphabetical ordering takes precedence.