Angas, South Australia Illustrated, Port Lincoln, looking across Boston Bay towards Spencer Gulf. Stanford Hill and Thistle Island in the Distance, Giclee

Archival limited edition giclee print ( /300) after the original hand colored lithograph by J.W. Giles after artist George French Angas for his ambitious publication "South Australia Illustrated".

Originally published in London between 1846 - 47, the hand colored lithographic prints were sold to 200 subscribers, eager to see what this brave British prototype freely-settled colony had to offer after a decade of settlement. How many of those 200 original hand colored lithographs still exist has prompted issuing this high quality light-safe inkjet process printed on cotton conservation paper.

Size of Image = 24cm x 34cm (9 1/3 x 13 1/3 inch)

Issued with Certificate /300

George French Angas: George French Angas was the son of London Financier, George Fife Angas, who created the South Australia Company to invest in this prototype free Colony. George French had declined the opportunity to join the family firm being determined to follow his artistic nature. He ventured to the new Colony of South Australia arriving in Adelaide on 1st January 1844. He promptly joined explorers setting out to claim land for the South Australia Company. Their range included the Mount Lofty Ranges, down to the Murray River and the Coorong. Angas recorded the  countryside and native animals. Of special interest was recording the people & culture of the Narrinyerri people. He accepted commissions &, within months,1844 acted as unofficial artist on Governor George Grey's south east expedition. All these opportunities were eventually the source for the 60 paintings that were sent back to his London publisher to be lithographed for "South Australia Illustrated".

Accompanying text in "South Australia Illustrated": "This view commands a most extensive scene, looking eastward across Boston Bay, and the entrance of Port Lincoln Proper, towards the Island at the mouth of the Spencer's Gulf. The point chosen is from the summit of Winter’s Hill, whence the eye wanders over undulating Hills, curiously sprinkled with “casurinae” (casurina?) or She oak trees, till it reaches the settlement called Port Lincoln, the houses which are visible…the southern extremity of Boston Bay is bounded by a beach of the whitest sand. Looking directly across the Bay is seen Stanford hill. Beyond it, to the right, the lofty slopes of Thistle Island are discernible on the horizon: to the left is a portion of Boston Island, which forms a natural breakwater to this magnificent Harbour’

Matthew Flinders' Voyage experienced a calamity in 1802 while mapping this gulf. At the entrance, his naturalists and artists went onshore to investigate safe anchorage and fresh water supplies. The names given to nearby  Cape Catastrophe and Misery Cove, are a testament it did not end well. The cutter mastered by his good friend John Thistle, and 7 other men, overturned in choppy waters, none being found. Eight Islands in the Gulf he named in honour of those who perished. The largest he reserved for his good friend, naturalist John Thistle, illustrated here in the distance.