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This naïve painting of early Newcastle and Stockton as for many years been part of the City of Newcastle Art Collection. When the painting was last exhibited in 2021 it was labelled “Unknown Artist”. I was intrigued and decided to see what I could find out about the history of this work. Research identified a potentially controversial candidate – is this painting a previously unknown work of surveyor and landowner, Henry Dangar?
Provenance
In October 1956, after many years of planning and construction, the Newcastle Cultural Centre building was opened. This building was the new home for the Newcastle City Library and remains so today. When opened, one room – the “W. J. Goold Room” was dedicated to the housing and preservation of historical material related to the Newcastle and Hunter district. He wrote a number of small local history monographs that are still used by local historians.
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| “Work Of A Lifetime Is Remembered.”, The Newcastle Sun. October 22, 1957. |
The room was named after the man who donated the foundation collection – Wilfred James Goold. A name still familiar to anyone with an interest in the history of Newcastle. Goold was a local businessman who was also active in a number of civic organisations such as various swimming, surf, and cricket clubs, Masons, Rotary, School of the Arts and businessmen’s associations/clubs. And also, as a founder and active member of the Newcastle District Historical Society.
The painting in question was part of the foundation collection donated by Goold[1].
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| This plaque is mounted in the City of Newcastle Library Local Studies Section |
On the 16th of February 1938 the Prime Minister, John Lyons opened the 150th Anniversary of Australia exhibition organised by the Newcastle and Hunter District Historical Society[2] in Newcastle. The exhibition included a variety of paintings, photographs, and objects that illustrated the history of Newcastle. As might be expected, items related to the coal industry were given prominent position – including “a piece of coal taken form the first skip that was won at the Stockton Colliery.”[3], and located next to it a picture of the rescue party from the 1896 Stockton Colliery Disaster.
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| Annual Report and Statement of Accounts Together with a List of Members - 1938, Newcastle and Hunter District Historical Society |
Other Stockton related items were also featured, including one that showed the Tweed Factory and the salt works. These landmarks were included in a painting loaned by Mrs. J. Faser, described as:
“Among the pictures on loan from Mrs. J. Fraser is one painted by Newcastle's first surveyor, of Newcastle from Cathedral Hill, showing these factories at Stockton.”[4]
An article from two years earlier gives a much more detailed description of the painting:
“Among an interesting collection of early photographs, paintings and reproduced etchings in the possession of Mrs Fraser, is a picture painted in oils on a board. More than a century old, it gives a view of the tweed factory [1] and the saltworks [2] at Stockton, looking from the heights of Newcastle. The old Christ Church [3], with its precarious tower, is a prominent landmark among quaint dwellings [4], grazing cows [5], and one or two residents in the dress of the day walking along a rough winding track [6].
Pirates’ Point, so-called because escaping convicts landed there, is prominent in the picture, and old paddle steamers are depicted on the way to Morpeth [7].”[5]
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| "View of Newcastle showing port with Cathedral in foreground and Tweed Factory on the foreshore", Newcastle Region Library Picture Gallery |
The article also mentions that Mrs. Fraser remembers her parents telling her about the fire that destroyed the Tweed Factory and her memories of the remains of the building after the fire.
So, who was Mrs James Fraser, and why would she have this painting, in addition to many other similar paintings and photographs of the early history and development of Newcastle?
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| A photograph of Annie Fleming from "Peter Fleming C1816-1894 : Butcher, Land Owner, Councilor, Family Man" by Winifred Joan MacFarlane, 2007 |
Annie Fleming Fraser
Mrs James Fraser was born Annie Fleming in December 1846, the daughter of Peter Fleming and Mary Cameron[6]. Peter Flemming started his working life as a butcher in Scotland before he was convicted of theft and sent to Australia as a convict[7][8]. He would swim cattle over to one of the harbour islands to fatten them up, so much so that the island became known as Bullock Island (later Carrington).[9] An astute businessman, he became extremely wealthy, extending his business interests into coal mining and property. It is here that we find a tentative connection to other luminaries of the time including Henry Dangar. Fleming and Dangar, along with James Hannell were the landholders of the area that would later become Wickham.[10] Fleming erected the first house in the area, called Linwood.
In addition to his business interests, he was actively involved in local politics, being a member of the Newcastle Borough Council. It seems likely that successful and influential businessmen such as Hannell, Dangar and Fleming moved in the same professional circles. There is some evidence of social interactions, with James Hannell, an MP at the time, giving one of the toasts at the wedding of Annie to James Fraser[11]. Annie married James Fraser, an engineer and foundryman[12] in May 1867 in a lavish wedding[13]. They also had a mutual interest in horse breeding, so much so that Peter’s eldest son Robert was the full-time stable manager.[14]
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| Section of map showing the land owned by Peter Fleming (red), James Hannell (blue) and Henry Dangar (green) from Parish of Newcastle, County of Northumberland / G. Lewis, 2nd April '86, National Library of Australia (https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-229900830/view) |
Peter Fleming’s will provide evidence that he had a collection of paintings, including one of him and his wife, Mary[16]. In fact, Peter Fleming owned a building which included “Mr. Graham’s Fine Art Depot”.[17] Graham was uninsured[18], did he use some of the items he saved to pay of debts to Flemming?
“I bequeath the furniture paintings plate and household effects…”[15]
Henry Dangar
Dangar was assigned by Gov. Brisbane to survey the Newcastle and Hunter District in 1822 and spent two years measuring and marking out land, villages, and the growing King’s Town.[19] These plans were to be used to divide the land for distribution, and to assist in future planning by the govt[20]. He was therefore intimately familiar with the Newcastle area.
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| Plan of the Town of Newcastle on Hunter's River, by Henry Dangar, 1823, NSW Crown Lands Department via Indigenising the City – Summary of Conference Paper |
There are currently two works attributed to Dangar, both held by the National Library of Australia as part of the Rex Nan Kivell Collection.
The two paintings are: Corroboree or native dance at Durhambak on the banks of the upper Manning, New England, Australia, 1 (https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135518043/view) and Corroboree or native dance at Durhambak on the banks of the upper Manning, New England, Australia, 2 (http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135518202). There is no detail about how what evidence was used to attribute these paintings to Henry Dangar[21].
To my untrained eye, even considering the different materials and subjects, these paintings don’t seem to have much in common stylistically. The tone of the images seems very different as does how the figures and foliage is rendered.
The painting itself is in a naïve folk style. It doesn’t appear to be the work of a professional artist or in the style of any of the artists known to have created works of Newcastle during the same period.
Dating of the Painting
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| “Newcastle 140 Years Ago.” Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 16 July 1960. |
The 1960 illustrated article assigning ownership of the painting to Goold has the following caption:
“This painting included in the W. J. Goold gift historical collection, is believed to have been painted between 1817 and 1820. It shows a view of Newcastle, the harbour entrance and Stockton. The church is the Anglican church, Christ Church, which was built in 1817. It was replaced later last century by the present cathedral. The period is established by the spire, which was demolished about 1820. The structure on the left at Stockton is the tweed factory, which was destroyed by fire.”
This quote gives the date of the painting as between 1817 – 1820. We can categorically say this is not possible. The Tweed Factory which features prominently on the Stockton foreshore, was not built until 1840[22], so that provides an earliest possible date for the painting. It also provides an end date, as the building in question was burnt down in 1851 (although it may have been added from memory). This dating aligns with that given on the 2021 exhibition label of about 1850.
This date puts creation of the painting within the lifetime of Henry Dangar, who died in 1861.
One major problem, however, is the physical dimensions of the painting. The 1938 exhibition catalogue lists the painting as being 14 inches by 18 inches or 350mm by 450mm. The Hunter Photobank catalogue entry for the painting lists it as 600mm by 850mm[23] or 23 inches by 33 inches. These measurements obviously don’t match. Could the larger measurement include the frame? Here the Library catalogue entry gives us the statement of: “1 painting : in frame 67 x 84 cm.” To me this indicates that the larger measurement does in fact include the dimensions of the frame. This could account for discrepancies in the dimensions.
It’s also worth noting that the image that appeared in the 1960’s newspaper article is cropped when compared to the more recent colour image of the painting, it’s possible that the measurements given in 1938 didn’t include parts of the image covered by the frame and/or matting.
Discussion
How did the painting transfer from the possession of Annie Fraser to Wilfred Goold? Annie Fraser died on the 31st Dec, 1938 at the age of 92.[24] This was at the end of the year of the exhibition. Is it possible that her painting wasn’t returned after the exhibition, and she died before it could be returned? Or did she or someone in her family gift it to Goold?
Conclusions
- The image was probably produced c.1850.
- Its first known owner is Mrs. Annie Fleming Fraser.
- Her father, Peter Fleming was a known to have a collection of pictures.
- The painting was known and exhibited in 1938.
- It is attributed to Newcastle’s first surveyor (at the time unknown).
- Newcastle’s first surveyor was Henry Dangar.
- Henry Danger and Peter Flemming were contemporaries and owned adjoining plots of land.
- It was given by W. J. Goold to the Newcastle City Library in 1957.
It’s impossible to say with 100% certainty that Henry Dangar was the artist, but the evidence we have is strong (stronger in fact than for those paintings held and attributed to him by the National Library of Australia).
If in fact Dangar didn’t painting the pictures, I have at least provided previously unknown information about the provenance of the painting.
References
[1] “Newcastle 140 Years Ago,” Newcastle Morning Hearld and Miners’ Advocate, July 16, 1960, 5.
[2] “NEWCASTLE EXHIBITION.,” Sydney Morning Herald, February 15, 1938, 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17431310.
[3] “SOUVENIRS OF OUR FIRST 150 YEARS,” Newcastle Sun, February 21, 1938, 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166674976.
[4] “SOUVENIRS OF OUR FIRST 150 YEARS.”
[5] “MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS,” Newcastle Sun, May 25, 1936, 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166583818.
[6] Winifred Joan MacFarlane, Peter Fleming C1816-1894: Arrival “Hygeia” 30 September 1838, 1997.
[7] MacFarlane.
[8] Mike Scanlon, “Ex-Convict’s Meaty Tale: HISTORY,” Newcastle Herald, April 4, 2015.
[9] Scanlon, 12.
[10] Scanlon, 12.
[11] Winifred Joan MacFarlane, Peter Fleming C1816-1894 : Butcher, Land Owner, Councilor, Family Man, 2007.
[12] “MRS. A. FRASER,” Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, January 2, 1939, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135470050.
[13] MacFarlane, Peter Fleming C1816-1894: Arrival “Hygeia” 30 September 1838.
[14] Scanlon, “Ex-Convict’s Meaty Tale.”
[15] “Peter Fleming : Photographs and Paper Cuttings” (n.d.).
[16] “Peter Fleming : Photographs and Paper Cuttings.”
[17] “Great Fire at Newcastle.,” Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, December 16, 1882, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161924821.
[18] “INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.,” Queenslander, December 16, 1882, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19788355.
[19] Nancy Gray, “Henry Dangar (1796–1861),” in Australian Dictionary of Biography, 18 vols. (Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2006), https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dangar-henry-1954.
[20] Map of the Town of Newcastle on Hunter's River, [1827-1828], [M4658A]. Living Histories, accessed 05/10/2024, https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/83545
[21] This was confirmed with the National Library of Australia via email dated 5 July 2024 (NLAref187183).
[22] “LIFE IN STOCKTON - Eleven Times Mayor ALD. TIMOTHY GRIFFITHS,” Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, March 14, 1931, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137692774.
[23] View of Newcastle Showing Port with Cathedral in Foreground and Tweed Factory on the Foreshore, 1840, oil on wood, 1840, https://newcastle-collections.ncc.nsw.gov.au/library?record=ecatalogue.54542.
[24] “Her Lifetime Spanned City’s Growth,” Newcastle Sun, January 2, 1939, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167350100.
