The silhouette artist, lithographer and draughtsman William Fernyhough began working at J. G. Austin's printing firm in 1836. His first production for Austin was a Series of Twelve Profile Portraits of the Aborigines of New South Wales, released as a set for 10s 6d in September of that year and remaining in print until the 1840s. It was suggested that these would make 'a pretty present to friends in England as characteristic of this country.' The historian Richard Neville has observed that the silhouettes were not intended as caricatures; rather, these supposedly faithful likenesses would allow English buyers, in particular, to examine the individuals portrayed in the light of current phrenological and physiological theories.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Robert Edwards AO 1999
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Dr Robert (Bob) Edwards AO (13 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Drawn from some of the many donations made to the Gallery's collection, the exhibition Portraits for Posterity pays homage both to the remarkable (and varied) group of Australians who are portrayed in the portraits and the generosity of the many donors who have presented them to the Gallery.
For Tom Roberts - Australia's best nineteenth-century portrait painter - neither a proto-national portrait gallery nor more popular collections of portrait heads, were sufficient public celebrations for the notables of Australian history
