The Artist-Collector: Eugene von Guérard and the Berlin Ethnological Museum

Abstract

The nineteenth-century landscape painter Eugene von Guérard was an avid collector. A series of letters held by the Ethnological Museum Berlin, translated by the authors from ‘old’ German into English, describes his personal collection of Australian Aboriginal cultural objects and its transfer, along with 64 objects acquired on consignment, to the Ethnological Department of the Berlin Museum in 1879. Complemented by the publication of the complete correspondence in a companion paper, this article contextualises the letters within von Guérard's careers as artist, curator and collector, positioning them within the framework of his travels as recorded in his sketchbooks, and in relation to specific consequential experiences and individuals, prevailing colonial narratives and European and colonial collecting agendas and networks. The letters inform, and are informed by, von Guérard’s art, collecting and professional practices, with new insights captured in the intersections between them.

Notes

1 Thomas Duckett (1839–1868), 12 April [1867]. Thomas Duckett papers. Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, UK. PRSMG Arch141.

2 James Smith, ‘A Colonial Artist], The Illustrated Australian Mail 4, no 1. (22 February 1862): 49–50.

3 Eugen von Guérard to Julius von Haast, 20 January 1885, Haast Family Papers, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, 177-0037. Published in English translation in: Thomas A. Darragh and Ruth Pullin, Lieber Freund! Letters from Eugen von Guérard to Julius von Haast (Ballarat: Art Gallery of Ballarat, 2018), 63. Von Guérard, one of Australia’s greatest nineteenth-century landscape painters, was born in Vienna in 1811, travelled and studied in Italy between 1827 and 1838, and studied and lived in Düsseldorf until 1852. He spent twenty-eight years in Australia, travelling extensively from his Melbourne base, and in 1882 returned to Düsseldorf, before settling in London with his daughter in 1891. He died in 1901.

4 ‘List of Works selected from E. von Guérard's Catalogue’, Public Library, Museums & National Gallery of Victoria, 29 October 1881. PROV 805, unit 115.

5 Thomas A. Darragh and Ruth Pullin, ‘Eugene von Guérard and the Ethnological Museum Berlin: Correspondence 1878–1880’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 135, no. 1–2 (Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, in press).

6 N. Peterson, L. Allen and L. Hamby, ‘Introduction’, in The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections, ed. Nicolas Peterson, Lindy Allen, Louise Hamby (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2008), 8; Voss, Report to the General Administration, response to 2232/78, 12 November 1878, Zentralarchiv, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

7 Research is currently being undertaken by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), to which the authors have contributed; see also: Anna Weinreich et al., ‘Artists, Archives and Ancestral Connections: An Aboriginal Collection between Australia and Berlin’, in Southeast Australian Aboriginal Art: Culture-Making and Curating for Country, ed. F. Edmonds, M. Clarke, and S. Thorner (Canberra: AIATSIS Press, forthcoming).

8 Sophie Hasenclever’s father, Wilhelm von Schadow, was the revered Director of the Düsseldorf Academy during the years that von Guérard studied there; von Guérard visited Sophie and her husband at Grevenbroich on 25 October 1845: von Guérard sketchbook XVI, 1843. State Library of New South Wales, DGB14, v. 6. [loose sheet]; von Guérard’s earliest connection with the Numismatics Department was in 1841, when he sold his father’s (Bernard von Guérard, 1771–1836) coin collection to the museum.

9 The Ethnologisches Museum Berlin (hereafter EMB), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (hereafter SMB), opened as the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde (Royal Museum of Ethnology) in 1886.

10 Von Guérard to Friedländer, 10 February 1878, Incoming Register 852/78, Zentralarchiv, SMB. Bastian had visited Australia, and Victoria, in 1851. Klaus-Peter Koepping, Adolf Bastian and the Psychic Unity of Mankind (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1983), 8.

11 Von Guérard to Bastian, 14 February 1878, Incoming Register 852/78, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 Janice Lally, ‘The Australian Aboriginal Collection and the Berlin Ethnological Museum’, in Peterson, Allen, and Hamby, Makers and Making, 190.

15 H. Glenn Penny, In Humboldt’s Shadow: A Tragic History of German Ethnology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021), 7.

16 Adolf Bastian, Alexander von Humboldt Festrede (Berlin: Wiegand and Hempel, 1869) in Koepping, 160.

17 Bastian quoted in Lally, 194.

18 Penny, 8, 7.

19 See Ruth Pullin, Eugene von Guérard: Nature Revealed (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2011), 246.

20 Alexander von Humboldt, Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe, vol. 2, trans. E.C. Otté (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849), 453, 438.

21 ‘A Pioneer of the Fifties: Leaves from the Journal of an Australian Gold Digger, 18 August 1853–16 March 1854/ Johann Joseph Eugen von Guérard’, unpublished manuscript, Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, 11.

22 The weapons depicted suggest the title Aborigines in Pursuit of Their Enemies, 1854; Argus, 30 December 1854, 8.

23 Von Guérard showed seven works: Official Catalogue of the Melbourne Exhibition 1854, in connexion with the Paris Exhibition, 1855, Section VIII, catalogue numbers 4–40: 35.

24 Elizabeth Willis, ‘Gentlemen Collectors: The Port Phillip District, 1835–1855’, in Peterson, Allen and Hamby, Makers and Making, 131.

25 Von Guérard, who had studied with Ludwig’s brother, August Becker in Düsseldorf, showed August’s Midnight Sun in Norway at the 1854 Melbourne Exhibition (Cat. No. 328).

26 Eugene von Guérard, ‘Australien Reminiszenzen’, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.

27 Eugene von Guérard, ‘My My by Geelong’, 22 April 1854. State Library of Victoria, H3803.

28 Von Guérard visited the Seidels on 12 March 1854, but the position of the undated sketch in his sketchbook suggests an 1855 date.

29 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Incoming Register 1926/79, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

30 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB. For maps of von Guérard’s expeditions, see Ruth Pullin, Eugene von Guérard's Sketchbooks: The Artist as Traveller (Ballarat: Art Gallery of Ballarat 2018), 307–17.

31 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879. EMB object identification number (EMB ID): VI 2572.

32 Philip Jones, in This Wondrous Land: Colonial Art on Paper, ed. Alisa Bunbury (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2011), 99.

33 Eugene von Guérard, Sketchbook XXIV, 1855 and Sketchbook XVIII, State Library of New South Wales, DGB16, vol. 3: 80–85 and DGB14, vol.7: 74.

34 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

35 James Dawson, cited in Tim Bonyhady, The Colonial Earth (Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 2000), 341.

36 For example, Eugene von Guérard, ‘Aboriginal Family Group’, 22 June 1856, pencil, 17.5 × 23.7 cm, The University of Melbourne Art Collection.

37 Andrew Sayers, Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century (Melbourne: Oxford University Press Australia, in association with the National Gallery of Australia 1994), 3.

38 The equestrian circus also inspired Johnny Dawson’s [European couple and horse; Horse race], State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, PXA 606.

39 Von Guérard to Bastian 25 August 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

40 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

41 Gilgar Gunditj elder, Aunty Eileen Alberts, descendent of Johnny Dawson (Kangatong). Personal communication with Ruth Pullin, 15 September 2022.

42 John Dawson, Drawing, c. 1855, pencil, ink and watercolour, 23.7 × 30 cm, Eugen von Guérard collection, EMB, VI 2585 b. Reproduced in Pullin, Eugene von Guérard’s Sketchbooks: The Artist as Traveller, 174.

43 Judy Leech, on Caitlyn Lehmann’s presentation, ‘Hoofing It! Ballet on Saddle and Stage at Astley’s Circus’, On Stage Magazine (Theatre Heritage Australia, 31 August 2019), https://theatreheritage.org.au/on-stage-magazine/general-articles/item/591-hoofing-it-ballet-on-saddle-and-stage-at-astley-s-circus (accessed 10 January 2023).

44 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

45 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879; von Guérard to Bastian, 25 August 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

46 A Correspondent, ‘Sketches in Australia’, Illustrated London News, vol. XXIX, no. 830 (15 November 1856), 491.

47 EMB ID: two stone axes VI 2575, 2576; kangaroo-teeth necklace VI 2579; net bag VI 2577; boomerang VI 2574; reed basket (Bin nuck) VI 2578. The entry on the reed basket, number 21 on von Guérard’s ‘List of Australian Objects’, makes reference to number 17 on the list: von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879.

48 Ian D. Clark, ‘We Are All of One Blood’ – A History of the Djabwurrung Aboriginal People of Western Victoria, 1836–1901, Vol. 1 (Place of publication and publisher unknown, 2016), 284.

49 Eugene von Guérard, Portrait of King Kooneware [sic], 26 June 1856, 9' × 11 ½'. In Supplementary Catalogue: Australasia – Melanesia – Micronesia – Polynesia, Supplementary Catalogue (London: Francis Edwards, Bookseller, 1903), Cat. no. 3752, 54.

50 Von Guérard to Bastian, 25 August 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

51 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

52 Von Guérard to Alfred Howitt, 9 February 1874. Howitt Papers, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, MS 9356, 1045/3a, no. 4.

53 Ian D. Clark, An Ethnohistory of the Djargurdwurrung People of Camperdown (Place of publication and publisher unknown, 2022), 201, 203. A photograph of this group with Isabella Dawson is held by the Camperdown & District Historical Society.

54 James Dawson, ‘Framlingham Aboriginal Station. Protest Against its Alienation’, Camperdown Chronicle, 26 September 1889, 2.

55 Von Guérard to Bastian 25 August 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid.

58 Robert Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, with Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives of Other Parts of Australia and Tasmania Compiled from Various Sources for the Government of Victoria (Melbourne: John Ferres, Government Printer. Published also by George Robertson, 1878), 278, fig. 27.

59 Von Guérard to Bastian, 25 August 1878.

60 [Robert Brough Smyth], Catalogue of the Objects of Ethnotypical Art in the National Gallery Published by Direction of the Trustees of the Public Library & Museums of Victoria (Melbourne: Mason, Firth & McCutcheon, 1878); von Guérard to von Haast, 16 January 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB. In Darragh and Pullin, Lieber Freund!, 30; Brough Smyth’s collection was purchased on 15 November 1877.

61 ‘[…] Township of Dunkelt’ [Dunkeld], Eugene von Guérard Sketchbook No. XXV, 1856. State Library of New South Wales, DGB16, vol. 4, 10; von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB; womerah and two spears, EMB VI 2561,VI 2562, VI 2563.

62 Lithograph published in S. Dougan Bird, On Australasian Climates and Their Influence in the Prevention and Arrest of Pulmonary Consumption (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1863), [plates 94–5].

63 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB; boomerang, EMB VI 2573.

64 Eugene von Guérard, Aborigines by a Fire before Mt William as Seen from Mt Dryden in the Grampians, 24 × 32 cm., Phillips Auctioneers, London, in March 1984. Current whereabouts unknown.

65 Eugene von Guérard, Sketchbook XXV, 1856. State Library of New South Wales, DGB 16, v. 4: 31, 32.

66 Heavy shield, EMB ID: VI 2567; liangle, VI 2568; womerah, VI 2569; waddy, VI 2571. Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879.

67 Clark, Djargurdwurrung People of Camperdown, 59; James Bonwick, Western Victoria. Its Geography, Geology and Social Condition. The Narrative of an Educational Tour in 1857, First published Geelong: Thomas Brown, 1858 (Heinemann, Australia, 1970), 43; A small group of Djargurdwurrung people around a campfire is visible in the middle distance of von Guérard’s Cloven Hills and Mt Elephant with Part of Lake Bookar [sic] f. Meningoort, [March 1857], pencil on paper, private collection; Thomas Dowling, King Tom and the Mount Elephant Tribe 1856, National Library of Australia.

68 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB; Willis, 115.

69 ‘Obituary. Mrs W. A. Taylor’, Camperdown Chronicle (10 August 1929), 5.

70 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB; EMB ID: serrated spear VI 2560; two shields VI 2564 and VI 2566.

71 Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, 330, 332.

72 Ibid., 352–53; EMB ID: three projectiles (weet-weet) VI 2565 a–c.; von Guérard to Bastian, 25 August 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

73 Von Guérard to Voss, 25 August 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

74 Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, 352.

75 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB; EMB ID: 8 possum skins VI 2580; emu wing VI 2586 a–b; emu tail feathers VI 2581.The tail of the Australian lyre bird was not registered.

76 Eugene von Guérard, Sketchbook XXXV 1864: [57], [56].

77 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB; EMB ID: 4 message sticks VI 2582 a–d; waist belt, Malden Islands VI2584.

78 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

79 Voss, Report to the General Administration, response to 2232/78, 12 November 1878.

80 Von Guérard to Bastian, 25 August 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

81 Ibid.

82 In 1878 £25 sterling was the equivalent of £2438 today (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator, accessed 31 August 2023), or approximately AUD $4784.00.

83 Von Guérard to Bastian, 25 August 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

84 Von Guérard to Voss, 9 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

85 Von Guérard to Bastian, 25 August 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

86 Voss Report, 12 November 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

87 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

88 Voss, Report, 12 November 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

89 Von Guérard to Friedländer, 20 January 1880, Incoming Register 1926/80.

90 Voss, Report, 12 November 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

91 Von Guérard to Haast, 4 January 1881, in Darragh and Pullin, Lieber Freund!, 45.

92 Von Guérard to Friedländer, 22 June 1880, Incoming Register 2131/80; Lally, 199; Koepping, 19.

93 Von Guérard to Bastian, 25 August 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

94 Von Guérard to Voss, 7 July 1879, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

95 Von Guérard to Haast, 7 May 1880, in Darragh and Pullin, Lieber Freund!, 39.

96 Von Guérard to Haast, 27 November 1880 and 27 April 1881, in Darragh and Pullin, Lieber Freund!, 42, 47; 3386 coins and medals were purchased on 21 September 1881.

97 Tim Ingold, cited in Gaye Sculthorpe, Maria Nugent, Howard Morphy, ‘Introduction’, Ancestors, Artefacts, Empire: Indigenous Australia in British and Irish Museums (London: The British Museum Press and National Museum of Australia Press, 2021), 18, fn.5.

98 Ibid., 18.

99 Daniel Clarke, artist, photographer and from 1865 manager of Framlingham Mission.

100 Sabra G. Thorner, ‘The Photograph as Archive: Crafting Contemporary Koorie Culture’, Journal of Material Culture 24, no. 1 (March 2019): 28.

101 Philip Jones, ‘Reciprocity: Artefacts of Aboriginal Trade and Exchange’, in Sculthorpe, Nugent, and Morphy, Ancestors, Artefacts, Empire, 41.

102 Von Guérard to Bastian, 25 August, 1878, Zentralarchiv, SMB.

103 Lally, 193, 200.

104 Sculthorpe, Nugent, Morphy, Ancestors, Artefacts, Empire, 17. See also: Leonn Satterthwait, ‘Collections as Artefacts: The Making and Thinking of Anthropological Museum Collections’, in Peterson, Allen, and Hamby, Makers and Making, 50–51.

105 Anna Weinreich et al., ‘Artists, Archives and Ancestral Connections’ (forthcoming).

106 Anna Weinreich, in Em||power||relations, ed. J. Binter et al. (Berlin: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2022), 61.