Marianne Egan and her children Gertrude Cahuac and Henry Cahuac were 38, 18 and 20 years old respectively when they died in the Dunbar maritime disaster. Marianne, Gertrude and Henry embarked on the Dunbar with 120 other passengers in May 1857, intending to return to Sydney. Having made good progress, the ship met with foul weather as it arrived off the coast of Sydney around midnight on 20 August. Missing the entrance to Sydney Harbour, the ship was driven by violent seas into cliffs near South Head and ‘rent into a thousand pieces.’ Everyone on board, with the exception of a sailor named James Johnson, perished. While images exist of the sole survivor, this is the only known portrait of victims of the tragedy. The family had sat for the portrait in England but it was unfinished at the time the Dunbar sailed. The painting followed on another vessel, arriving safely a few months after the deaths of its subjects.
Purchased with funds provided by the Liangis family 2014
A wide, 20cm burnished gold frame, on the outermost edge a pattern like oval jewels in parathesis, uniformly repeated right the way round, inside this, a wide, plain moulding with entwining vine flourishes at each corner, and closer to the subjects another frame within a frame, echoing the pattern of the outermost edge.
The portrait is landscape, burnished gold paint to perfectly match the framing, fills in the corners of the interior rectangle, whereupon a deep burgundy oval darkens to black towards the side edges, provides a dark backdrop for three warmly lit faces and their bright, creamy complexions.
It is a family portrait of a mother and her two adult children from the 1850s. They are clean and well-dressed, arranged close to one another from the chest up, their heights aligned.
They are oddly distant, each looking toward a different focal point. The two women are angled toward one another, though their eyes don’t meet and 20-year old, fresh faced Henry is on the right.
On the left is 18-year old Gertrude Evans Cahuac, her torso angles towards her mother and brother, her right shoulder turns to us. She is the only member of the group looking directly out of the portrait towards the viewer.
Her long auburn hair is parted in the centre, covering her ears, and winds in a soft plait around her head. Her plump, oval shaped face is open; poised before a smile. Her pale complexion is offset by blue eyes, rosy cheeks and parted, cheruby red lips. On her creamy neck a modest gold chain and its diamond shaped, gold pendant. Gertrude’s off-the-shoulder gown has tightly ruffled white fabric peeping out from a deep, green bodice, a stiff, pale, flattened bow at her front.
Next to Gertrude, and just behind her children, Marianne’s face tilts slightly forward and to the left. Angled towards her daughter, she looks into the middle distance, with a gentle unfocused gaze. Marianne’s hair is rich, dark brown, her eyes are dark and there is a familial likeness to her daughter in her sweet, oval shaped face, her flawless complexion and middle parted hair, lying flat over her ears, drawn up at the back.
At her neck, Marianne wears a black choker, its ribbon crossing at the front, held by a small gold quatre-foil brooch, resembling a clover leaf. Her brown coat with its inky collar is open at the front, revealing the hint of a white garment beneath. Her left side is obscured by the right shoulder of her son, Henry William Cahuac’s dark jacket.
Henry has his back to the women. He has brown eyes and wavy auburn hair. Whiskery facial hair rests lightly on his upper lip and frames his jaw. He gazes out, somewhere over to the left, beyond us.
Henry exudes a distinguished, contented countenance. Beneath a black jacket, Henry’s white upturned collar is held together by a wide, loose, black bow tie and one gold stud draws attention to the apex at which his shirt and jacket meet.
The rest of his attire is cut off by the rising, elliptical shape of the portrait’s frame.
Audio description written by Annette Twyman and voiced by Emma Bedford
Marianne Egan (age 39 in 1857)
Gertrude Evans Cahuac (age 18 in 1857)
Henry Cahuac (age 20 in 1857)
Mrs Sortiria Liangis AM (12 portraits supported)
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