Aboriginal artists of the nineteenth century (hardcover edition)

With a foreword by Lin Onus and a chapter by Carol Cooper. Melbourne : Oxford University Press in association with National Gallery of Australia, 1994. First edition. Quarto, boards in illustrated dustjacket, slight sunning to spine, pp. 162, illustrated. A very good copy.

‘Andrew Sayers examines a considerable body of drawings produced by Aboriginal artists between 1803 and 1903. Never before collected as a genre, these works are retained in museums, libraries, or private hands and have rarely been displayed. Often regarded as inauthentic art because of their stylistic borrowings and fluctuations, they enjoy a unique status as products of the interaction between Aboriginal society and the British colonizers. The largest group of drawings comes from the hands of three artists–Tommy McCrae (c1823-1901), William Barak (c1824-1903), and Ulladulla Mickey (c1820-1891), who produced their drawings in the 1880s and 1890s. Visually these drawings are varied, but they possess many of the aesthetic qualities which characterize contemporary Aboriginal art, displaying intense vitality and an acute understanding of flora and fauna.’ (–publisher).

From the library of renowned art historian Ann Galbally, signed by her on the half-title.