Self-portrait at Atelier Drolling, Paris, c. 1840. Pencil and wash, Rex Nan Kivell Collection, National Library of Australia

William Strutt (1825–1915) began studying at the Paris atelier of Michel-Martin Drolling in 1838 at the tender age of 13. This well-observed self-portrait was made when he was only 15. Strutt was later accepted into the École des Beaux-Arts, where he was instructed by stalwarts of the French academic system, Horace Vernet and Paul Delaroche. The Academy's training regime was systematic and thorough. Pupils began by copying engravings and plaster casts, then moved on to drawing from live models, and eventually advanced to painting and composition. Strutt finished his training a superb draughtsman and renderer of the human figure, able to compose complex narrative works.

Un berger, c. 1837. Watercolour, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

Strutt was aged just 12 when he painted this watercolour of a French shepherd, which reflects the house style of the French Academy in which he was trained. In the 1830s this was described as the juste milieu (middle way), a conservative compromise between the cool rigour of neoclassicism and the emotional charge of romanticism.

Christ preaching, c. 1840. Pencil and wash, Pictures Collection, National Library of Australia

The French Academy promoted the art of history painting – large, dramatic canvases depicting narrative scenes drawn from classical literature, the Bible and contemporary events. While studying in Paris, Strutt mastered a method for creating large pictures following classical techniques. Initially, he would make quick sketches of dramatic incidents, which would be used as building blocks for a larger compositional sketch. This work would in turn be overlaid with a grid to make it easier to transfer to a large canvas. Strutt would then add detail, based on his meticulous sketches of individual models and props.

Separation 1850, Melbourne, Ham Brothers, 1850. Pen lithograph, Pictures Collection, National Library of Australia

William Strutt arrived in Melbourne on 5 July 1850, aged just 24. He spent a dozen years in the Antipodes, a period of extraordinary change when gold was discovered and immigration soared. On 11 November 1850, Port Phillip separated from New South Wales, becoming a self-governing colony. A three-day public holiday was called, culminating in Separation Day on 15 November and the opening of Princes Bridge in Melbourne. Strutt completed several works to mark the occasion, including this commemorative flyer. It was distributed to the crowds by John Pascoe Fawkner, who rode in a horse-drawn trolley loaded with a printing press and printers, which produced the flyers as the trolley made its way through the city streets.

Gold diggings of Victoria, preparing to start (from The Gold diggers portfolio), c. 1851. Hand-coloured engraving, Pictures Collection, National Library of Australia

In 1851, when gold was discovered in Victoria, William Strutt wrote that the 'sober "Melbournites" became dizzy and a veritable gold fever of great virulence seized the population'. He, too, 'felt compelled to follow the tide' and try his luck on the goldfields of Ballarat. Like many other artists who thought they'd find their fortunes, Strutt came away with a wealth of sketches rather than gold nuggets. The drawings resulted in several prints, including a lithograph of the location where James Dunlop and James Reagan first found gold in Ballarat. The discovery sparked the Ballarat gold rush and led to a change in the location's name from Poverty Point to Golden Point.

Corunguiam and Munight, 1851. Hand-coloured lithograph, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

While visiting the Victorian goldfields, William Strutt made several drawings of the Native Police Corps of Port Phillip. The mounted force of Aboriginal troopers was formed in 1837 and operated until 1853. Strutt also made drawings of the troopers in their barracks at Richmond, and prints based on his drawings appeared in the Illustrated Australian magazine and Thomas Ham's The Gold Diggers Portfolio (1854). Strutt’s drawings and watercolours are the most extensive visual record of the Native Police Corps.

Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851, 1864. Oil on canvas, State Library Victoria

Six months after William Strutt arrived in Victoria, the devastating fire of 6 February 1851 threatened to consume the colony. He created several works based on the catastrophe, including Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851 (1864), which was completed more than a decade after the event, following his return to England. Though praised in the English press, the artwork sat in Strutt’s studio for 20 years before it was shipped to Australia and exhibited around the country. The painting was eventually sold to an Adelaide buyer and was purchased by State Library Victoria in 1954.

Study for Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851, c. 1862. Pencil and wash, Rex Nan Kivell Collection, National Library of Australia

Sketches played an important role in the creation of Strutt's historic paintings, forming the building blocks of the much larger works. Working from a series of initial and more-developed sketches, he would create a larger compositional sketch such as this study for Black Thursday. This would then be overlaid with a grid and transferred to a large canvas in preparation for the artwork in oils to take shape.

Bush fires in the Moorabbin district, 1854. Watercolour, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

This quick study shows kangaroos fleeing before a fire front. It was painted several years after Black Thursday, 'sketched by the glare of the lightning and fires in my garden at Cheltenham, Moorabbin District, on the night of March 17th 1854. Looking towards the Dandenong Ranges.' Scribbled on the border and over the sketch itself are Strutt's working notes on such details as the clouds' coloration.

Bush fire at the station, c. 1860. Pencil and wash, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

Strutt worked for three years on his magnum opus, Black Thursday, studiously referring to the copious notes he took during the event and the sketches he made in the fire's aftermath. The result was a painting dominated by a sky 'the colour of mahogany', out of which terrified people and animals emerge in 'a stampede for life'. Captioned 'a true scene in bush fires in Australia', this sketch of another bushfire, in 1860, captures the flurry of panicked dogs, pigs, goats, sheep and cattle, the women and children fleeing while the men attempt to safeguard their stock.

Study for woman wearing a bonnet in Black Thursday, c. 1851. Pencil and wash, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

William Strutt’s big pictures on Australian themes were based on real events, and an immense amount of research was undertaken before work on the actual paintings began. Notes, photographs and sketches of the sites and participants were collected, including this example from Black Thursday, along with interviews and contemporary news reports.

Self-portrait as a New Zealand bushman, Mangorei, Taranaki, New Zealand, 1856, 1856. Pencil and wash, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

Strutt spent a dozen years in the Antipodes between 1850 and 1862. In 1852 he married Sarah Agnes Hague in Melbourne, and they went on to have three daughters in the city. In February 1855 the family sailed to New Zealand to escape the 'trying nature of the excessive heat'. Sarah gave birth to a son while they were in New Zealand, but after 18 months the family returned to Melbourne, overwhelmed by the 'awful stillness' of the New Zealand bush.

Portrait of Lady Macarthur, c. 1862. Pencil, crayon and wash, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

Portrait painting was William Strutt’s main source of income during his years in Australia. He gained a reputation as the finest portrait painter in the colony and painted many notable people, including Lady Macarthur and her husband, Sir Edward Macarthur.

Portrait of Major-General Sir E Macarthur, KCB, c. 1858. Pencil and crayon, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

Strutt painted many important people while in Australia, including Sir Edward Macarthur (1789–1872). The son of the wool baron and pioneer settler Captain John Macarthur, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Australia in 1855, and acted as administrator of Victoria in 1856.

Portrait of John Pascoe Fawkner, founder of Melbourne, 1856. Oil on canvas, National Library of Australia

William Strutt’s artistic abilities came to the attention of John Pascoe Fawkner, the self-styled 'Father of Melbourne'. A former convict turned journalist, businessman and politician, Fawkner shared Strutt's ambition to record great events on large canvases. Half a century before Tom Roberts' painting of the opening of Federal Parliament in 1901, they planned to produce large oils of the inaugural sitting of the Victorian Legislative Council, in 1851, and first sitting in the new Victorian Parliament, in 1856. Strutt attended both openings and made preparatory drawings, but, to his frustration, the funds necessary for such large works could not be raised.

Portrait of Robert O'Hara Burke, 1860. Pencil and wash, Pictures Collection, National Library of Australia

Completed in the months prior to his return home to Britain in 1862, Strutt's final works in Australia focused on the departure of the Burke and Wills expedition. He watched the preparations leading up to the group's departure on 20 August 1860, and made in situ sketches of the expedition's leader, Robert O'Hara Burke. Sketches such as this portrait of Burke informed Strutt's later full-length portrait of the explorer, which was commissioned by the Melbourne Club.

Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852, 1887. Oil on canvas, The University of Melbourne Art Collection. Gift of the Russell and Mab Grimwade Bequest, 1973. The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne

One of William Strutt's most iconic, large-scale colonial works was based on an incident that occurred during his time in Australia. Over a period of two and a half hours on a Saturday afternoon in October 1852, bushrangers bailed up and robbed more than 20 people travelling along St Kilda Road. Completed more than 30 years after the event, the painting reflects Strutt's focus on darker topics on his return to England, emphasising the dangers of colonial life.

Study of first bushranger for Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852, 1886. Pencil and wash, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

Strutt was methodical in his preparation for his Bushrangers painting, sourcing and transcribing contemporary newspaper articles, including those from the Argus, which recorded the drama in lurid detail. He also obtained costumes from Australia, 'the very ones worn by the colonists at the time'.

Study of second bushranger for Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852, 1886. Pencil, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

Strutt's masterpiece, Bushrangers, was based on an extensive archive of preparatory sketches and observations.

Study of bound hands for Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852, 1886. Pencil and wash, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

The extensive archive of preparatory sketches made by Strutt provides valuable insights into how he composed the iconic painting Bushrangers, which took seven months to complete.

Group studies for Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852, 1886. Pencil and wash, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

The crime that inspired Strutt's Bushrangers painting was reported in lurid detail in local papers such as the Argus. In its reporting of the crime, which took place on St Kilda Road over a period of two and a half hours on a Saturday afternoon in October 1852, the Argus noted that '…one of the villains became very abusive, using the most blasphemous and violent language, and raising his gun drove his stock into the panel of the gig, threatening to blow their brains out if any resistance were offered'.

Figure study for Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852, 1886. Pencil, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852 was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1887 and, unlike Black Thursday, it immediately found a buyer. Purchased by Yorkshire colliery owner Charles Brooke Charshaw, it remained in the family until it was sold to Melburnian Sir Russell Grimwade in 1955. The painting was bequeathed to the University of Melbourne by the Russell and Mab Grimwade Bequest in 1973.

The burial of Burke, 1911. Oil on canvas, State Library Victoria

In 1860 the Victorian Exploring Expedition left Melbourne with the intention to map territory north to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The news of the demise of the expedition's leaders, Burke and Wills, was met with a collective outpouring of grief in Melbourne. In the 1880s, Dr William Gillbee left a bequest to the National Gallery of Victoria to fund a large memorial painting based on the deaths of the explorers. William Strutt applied for the commission but it was awarded to an Australian artist living in England, John Longstaff. Disappointed, Strutt went ahead with his own version, which was based on material he'd collected half a century earlier while living in Australia.

The return from Calvary, the road of blood, c. 1880. Pencil, wash and watercolour, Rex Nan Kivell Collection (Pictures), National Library of Australia

William Strutt and his family returned to England in 1862, where he continued to work as an artist and began teaching to gain extra income. His colonial work was a minor part of his output in England, which mostly comprised genre pieces featuring animals and scenes from the Bible. He executed these works in the classical style in which he was trained, ignoring the new trends of French modern art.