david coombe history
About the S.T. Gill Project
Samuel Thomas Gill (1818 - 1880), colonial artist, with a focus on the South Australian years and
covering his life and work from his arrival in South Australia at the end of 1839
up to his early time in the Victorian gold rush in 1852-1853.
A project of original research presented in online formats.
In this article ...
In 2016 I began studying arguably Australia's most recognisable colonial artist – Samuel Thomas Gill (1818 - 1880). Recognised, if not by name, then by his many images used for historical illustration.
My focus is on Gill's life and work from his arrival in South Australia at the end of 1839 up to his early time at the Victorian gold rush in 1852-1853. I substantially completed this scope in February 2026.
This is extensive original research. It supplements earlier work by Gill authorities – Sasha Grishin; Ron Appleyard, Barbara Fargher and Ron Radford; Keith Macrae Bowden and others. (See References.) My focal period is slightly further on than the reference work S.T. Gill, the South Australian years 1839-1852 (Appleyard, Fargher, Radford, 1986). I diverge in from Appleyard and Radford in their dating and related conclusions.
I came to this research interest through the 2016 exhibition S.T. Gill & his Audiences at the State Library of Victoria (SLV) and the National Library of Australia (NLA) curated by Professor Sasha Grishin who also authored an accompanying book. I highly recommend Grishin's S.T. Gill & his audiences for those wanting an overview and appreciation of Gill's work and life.
At the time the late scholar Babette Smith controversially claimed that Gill was a convict and not a free settler – a claim refuted by Grishin. My interest was stirred to explore the controversy. I bravely and naïvely embarked on a ten part blog coinciding with the Canberra leg of the exhibition. It turned out the convict argument was unsound. However by the end of the blog I'd seen gaps in our knowledge of Gill and a problem with the accepted timeline. I didn't have answers at the time but thought it worth further exploration.
I've been fortunate to have time and patience; analytical and computer skills. I followed my interests, including Trove, digitised mapping and database development. I am motivated to illuminate an historical angle, rediscover lost context and, perhaps, grow biographical insight. I hope this project will inform writers and teachers of history who use Gill's artwork to support their text.
This project stands, not on personal reputation, but on evidence and argument.
I revisited the work of Appleyard, et. al., because:
Although I reached different conclusions to Appleyard, his 1986 book has been a significant inspiration and I have constantly referenced it throughout my research. While not claiming so, the book is something of a catalogue raisonné and I reference Appleyard numbers in my catalogue. See S.T. Gill - Select Catalogue of Works | Appleyard, Fargher and Radford. I also took Appleyard's detailed analysis of cross-references for the James Allen commission (Appendix A) as motivation for similar analysis.
By extending my scope beyond Appleyard's South Australia and into Gill's earliest Victorian gold rush images I've found ongoing South Australian connections and resolved puzzles around his intercolonial move.
By necessity my research also embraces artistic contemporaries of Gill such as George French Angas (1822-1886), William Anderson Cawthorne (1824-1897) and Frederick Robert Nixon (1817-1860). You'll also find related material on 1840s South Australia including interactive maps.
Project content is presented in web page "articles" which may be thought of as:
The catalogue and narrative integrates with interactive maps which are implemented using OpenStreetMap's uMap.
The most significant project content is a select catalogue of S.T. Gill's early colonial works. This catalogue is generally confined to what is readily accessible from public collecting institutions and can be thought of as an extra online layer sitting above their catalogues – a supra-catalogue. The catalogue is supported by related analytical articles and interactive maps showing artworks in geographical and historical context.
(There's more on Accessing Project Content below.)
In writing about the artist Samuel Thomas Gill, the challenge all have faced is an abundance of undated artworks and a lack of other primary historical sources. There are no known Gill diaries (Horrocks expedition aside), letters, account books, or colonial sketchbooks. Another challenge arose from Appleyard and Radford misdating Gill's series The Seasons and the Months.
The most significant books on Gill (also see References) are those by:
The Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1 (1966) predated these with an article focussing on Gill's known works. E. J. R. Morgan, 'Gill, Samuel Thomas (1818-1880)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gill-samuel-thomas-2096/text2639>, published first in hardcopy 1966.
Bowden (1971) was narrative in style, blending Gill's works with social history. His book listed known works in collections – including wash drawings – especially those in public collections. Unpublished Gill family material was the basis for information on the family. Bowden dated The Seasons and the Months to 1847, consistent with its album label.
Appleyard et al (1986) focussed on the South Australian years (1839 - 1852), supported an exhibition, and included an illustrated catalogue and a biographical outline (5 pages plus another 5 of endnotes). The book generally excluded the wash drawings. Appleyard and Radford redated The Seasons and the Months to 1840-1842 which helped fill a chronology but was in error. → S.T. Gill and Art History's Wrong Turn
Grishin (2015) gave an appreciation of the artist and his art over his full lifetime. His book accompanied a comprehensive exhibition curated by the author. The chapters (in chronological order) are vignette in style. He understandably relied on Appleyard et al. for the South Australian years and so likewise placed The Seasons and the Months in 1840-1842.
This project is partly biographical, but it is not a biography. Its scope is Gill's South Australian years (plus his early Victorian diggings work). In recovering the actual dating for The Seasons and the Months this project has a firmer basis for Gill's early biography. One purpose of this project is to add "why" to "what" and give the historical context for Gill's works and career. The catalogue is the main foundation for the narrative. The project is an interlinked collection of (web page) articles, some of which have a catalogue focus, some are narrative, others are a mix.
The time seemed right for a digital approach to discovery and presentation, to capitalise on the cataloguing and online availablility of the major holders of works (state and national libraries and galleries), to scour the digitised newspapers in Trove, and to incoporate interactive historical mapping.
I've tried to take a scientific approach: observation, hypothesis and test; transparency and reproducibility. In the accompanying articles I present evidence, argument and opinion for others to test. Feedback is welcome.
Along the way I built a personal research database of art works and events. I categorised these with what may seem disparate data but which allows for dating and extraction of narrative. The database helps me place the works of Gill (and some other artists) in time, place and society. Much of the data is relational: people, places, locations, events, exhibitions, signature styles, picture devices, provenance, even theories. I interrogate the database so possible narratives can be tested, refined and extracted. I've found rhis method fruitful.
My research database currently has around 750 works from about a dozen collecting institutions. It includes over 3,300 dated events for context, 1,250 keywords and 15,000 keyword uses. From the database I also generate presentational content for both web pages and maps, supporting consistency.
Gill's work was frequently topical and using this approach I've been able to recover contemporary context that's escaped memory in 180 years. I think of this as a place and time machine.
I've discovered details of Gill's work that bring us a deeper understanding of his career trajectory, cleverness, cheekiness, opportunism, industriousness, persistence and luck.
I've compiled an album of catalogue, narrative, analytical and reference material, one online article at a time, in no particular sequence. Over time they became increasingly interlinked with each other.
January / February 2026: the catalogue and narrative parts of this project are now subtantially complete.
The narrative is complete from 1839 to March 1853. There is currently an intentional gap for Gill's presence on the Horrocks expedition in July to September 1846, as this is well covered by his own diary as published in the newspaper after his return.
Beyond the original scope to 1853, I continue to explore some aspects of Gill's life and work.
See a complete list of project articles in order they were published, starting with the most recent.
You can also access project content by place (maps), time (catalogue of works and chronological display) or artistic subject through Indexes, Catalogue, Lists, Status, Help, including:
This project would not be possible without the digitised resources provided by the collecting institutions and the newspapers of NLA's Trove. Institutions have also been generous in letting me inspect works (especially the undigitised backs) and in sourcing information from their acquisition files (for provenance and supporting information).
I am personally indebted to historian Frank Campbell who at the start encouraged me to pursue this interest. We initially made contact over the convict controversy and Frank pursued his own angle with S.T. Gill: A Phony Controversy. Around this time Frank wrote Face value : the assassination of portrait painting by photography, 1850-1870 : Richard Noble and his circle : including a catalogue raisonné of Richard Noble. We occasionally corresponded by email, but an ISP change resulted in us losing contact. I don't think we imagined how far this interest would go. Thank you Frank!
David Coombe, 2021-2026. Updated 10 July 2026. | text copyright (except where indicated).
CITE THIS: David Coombe, 2021-2025, S.T. Gill - About the Project, accessed dd mmm yyyy, <https://coombe.id.au/S_T_Gill/about.htm>