Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2007

294 pages, 377 colour illustrations, 30 x 25 cm., Bibliography, Index.

ISBN 978-0642-54180-2

Review

Every so often comes a book which makes us rethink what we know. Roger Butler, senior curator of Australian prints and drawings at the National Gallery of Australia, has done that in his Printed: Images in Colonial Australia 1801-1901. Published to accompany the gallery's exhibition, The Story of Australian Printmaking 1801-2005, the book – the first of three volumes on print-making in Australia – has a significant impact on our knowledge and understanding of Australian art.

This book, generously illustrated, offers scholars, curators, collectors and dealers, and anyone interested in the history of Australia, a remarkable amount of information. Printed Images by Australian Artists 1885-1955, and Printed Images by Australian Artists 1955-2005, will be published later this year.

John McPhee The Bulletin 16 April 2007

About

This work is the first of a groundbreaking three-volume series on Australian printmaking, the most comprehensive coverage of Australian prints to be published. The series draws on the national collection, comprising over 36,000 prints.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Acknowledgements
  • Printmaking in New South Wales before 1822
    • A wide perspective
    • Lewin: In the service of science
    • Forgeries and promissory notes
    • The first views: Absalom West's publications
    • Forgeries and banknotes
    • The Wallis publication
  • Artisans and artists
    • The dominance of copperplate engraving
    • Images printed with text
    • The chapbook style in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and New South Wales
    • Lithographs: the first Twenty-five years (1825-50)
  • Printed images for all
    • Lithography – Gold rush consolidation
    • Printing in colour
    • Viewbooks
    • Lithography and science
    • Gift books by women artists
    • Chromo-lithographs
    • Sporting prints
    • The illustrated press
    • The rise and demise of wood-engraving
    • Pictorial supplements and the plight of the wood-engravers
    • The fine art of wood-engraving
    • Picturesque Atlas of Australasia
    • Printmaking and the application of photography
  • Bibliography
  • Index

Subjects

Australian Art, Australian Printmaking, Colonial art, Printmaking history

Available from

The National Gallery of Australia Bookshop phone: +61 2 6240 6438, fax: +61 2 6240 6628 or email: ecom@nga.gov.au

Distributed in Australia by Thames & Hudson

Distributed in England and Europe by Thames & Hudson

Distributed in The United States of America by Washington University Press