ST Gill and his audiences

Author: Sasha Grishin
Price: $39.99
Publisher: National Library of Australia in association with State Library Victoria
Available to read in the Library

Samuel Thomas Gill, or STG as he was universally known, was Australia’s most significant and popular artist of the mid-19th century. He worked in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, and left some of the most memorable images of urban and rural life in colonial Australia.

The first major comprehensive book to be devoted to Gill, this work reproduces some of the most startling images from 19th-century Australian art.

The whole gamut of colonial life is found in Gill’s watercolours and prints. There are personalities such as the 'unlucky digger', the 'gold buyer' and the squatter who is 'monarch of all he surveys'. Historic locations, geological landmarks and notable occasions are also captured, such as the first cricket match between New South Wales and Victoria in 1857, and the departure of Sturt’s overland expedition.

Author Sasha Grishin is the curator of our 2015 exhibition, Australian sketchbook: Colonial life and the art of ST Gill, on display in the Library's Keith Murdoch Gallery from 17 July to 25 October 2015.

About the author

Sasha Grishin is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University, where he established the academic discipline of Art History and was the Sir William Dobell Professor of Art History and Head of Art History and Curatorship until 2013. He works internationally as an art historian, art critic and curator, and has published more than 25 books.