Name/TitleTerre de Diemen. Ouriaga (Young Tasmanian man from Bruny Island)
About this objectPortrait of the young man Ouriaga, probably first sketched by Petit during Baudin’s visit to Partridge Island, off the south-east Tasmanian coast, on 14th January 1802. The plate is from the first edition of the Baudin voyage account.
Petit's portraits represent the most compassionate yet honest portrayal of indigenous persons to be seen in any of the early voyage accounts. Regarding the Tasmanian portraits in particular Andrew Sayers has noted that they were 'sensitive portraits of individuals' which shows ' a determination to record the details of coiffure and cicatrisation,' producing a 'truth unusual in the depiction of Australia's indigenous people in the early nineteenth century' (Sayers, Australian Art, p. 28).
Certainly, this portrait of Ouriaga is a valuable ethnographic record, showing the young man's hair ornamented with red ochre, a kangaroo skin covering wrapped over the shoulder and a repeated pattern of cicatrices on his arms. Baudin commented on the tremendous resilience of the Bruny Island Aborigines to cold and physical hardship, with little more than a single kangaroo pelt against the elements.
MakerNicholas Martin Petit - Artist
Maker RoleArtist
Date Made1807
Period19th century
Medium and MaterialsPaper, ink and pigment
Place MadeBruny Island, Tasmania, Australia
Place NotesInitial sketches
Place MadeParis, France
Place NotesPrinted
TechniqueEngraving
Measurements320mm x 240mm
Object TypeIndigenous History
Object numberSF000782
Copyright Licence
Attribution - Non-commercial - No Derivatives (cc)
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The mug is decorated with an underglaze and a blue transfer print. On the body, it is titled ‘Emigrants to Australia’. This type of body and glaze was discontinued by 1840. Comparison of the handle shape and the profile of the foot, point to the attribution of manufacture by the Davenport Factory.
Delta was a ship-rigged vessel with two decks and three masts. It was built in Dordrecht, Netherlands in 1839 at the shipyard of Jan Schouten and registered in the same port. Its hull was constructed of oak and sheathed in ‘yellow metal’. Delta was owned by H. van der Sande at the time of its loss and was engaged as a cargo trader.
The Delta carried 29 crew and passengers, while sailing from Melbourne to Batavia in ballast when wrecked at Kenn Reefs on 30 May 1854 whilst under the command of Captain J.G. Kunst. This vessel loss supports the pattern of shipwrecks located on a well-travelled shipping route that was poorly charted until the mid-nineteenth century. The crew of the Delta could see four other shipwrecks at Kenn Reefs at the time of their vessel’s loss.
Important image of a ship associated with Matthew Flinders, that would shortly become one of the most famous early shipwrecks in eastern Australian waters. This is a fine ship’s portrait, by one of the great exponents of the art