Catherine Webb | Colonial Australian Artist John Lewin: ‘English Eyes’, Truth to Nature, or Both?

This event will be held both on-campus and online.

Catherine Webb is an HDR (Higher Degree Research) candidate in the Centre for Art History and Art Theory at the Australian National University, Canberra. Her current thesis title is ‘A revaluation of the work of art in colonial Australia: were the colonial artists really depicting their surroundings with ‘English eyes?’

John Lewin was a specialist natural history artist who came to Australia in 1800 and painted an important series of landscape pictures on a journey across the Blue Mountains to the Bathurst Plains in 1815. Catherine’s interdisciplinary analysis of these works, and the land on which they were made, aims to tease out whether they were works of creative interpretation, or an accurate record of an important journey. What does a deep contextual analysis of these pictures divulge about Lewin’s art, and what does it mean for our current art-historical interpretation?

This event will be held both on-campus and online via Zoom (a link to the online stream will be sent to registered attendees).

The School of Art & Design Seminar series will continue weekly on Tuesdays from 1-2pm, between 13 February and 14 May 2024. 

To see information about upcoming speakers and to register to attend please follow this link https://rb.gy/v923bn

The School of Art & Design Seminar Series is co-convened by Dr Alex Burchmore, Alia Parker, and Elisa Crossing.