Art Page - Now Live! G. Gore del. (1/?) - Discoveries in Australia & Co.

Written By JK Spallek, Contribution by Katie Pitt

We are back with a new addition to the website: A page dedicated to the artistic work of Graham Gore. Commander James Fitzjames, RN, offered a rather humorous opinion on Gore’s artistic ability in a letter to his sister-in-law, stating that HMS Erebus' first Lieutenant “draws sometimes very well, sometimes very badly”. Thankfully, we do not have to simply take Fitzjames at his word: A large sample of Gore's art has survived in original or copy for us to analyze.

Our best examples are the illustrations scattered throughout Discoveries in Australia. This official narrative written by Commander John Lort Stokes, RN, describes HMS Beagle's surveying activities along the Australian coastline from 1837-43. Stokes, who had consecutively served on Beagle for over ten years, explicitly identified Gore, first Lieutenant of Beagle from 1841-43, as one of the main artists behind the illustrations. While most motifs seem to be based on Gore’s own experiences and memories of the voyage, there is at least one that must have been derived from his crew mates’ descriptions only, since he had not been aboard Beagle yet at the time of the event depicted (November 3, 1839) and the area was apparently not visited again after the start of Gore’s commission.

These illustrations belong to a genre of colonial propaganda not uncommon for i.a. travel accounts that depict the perceived “wildness” and “otherness” of Indigenous lands, in this case the Australian landscape, for the British Crown to occupy and “civilize”. The lack of people depicted in the illustrations also reflects the legal doctrine of a terra nullius, which was prominently used to justify the colonial exploits in Australia: The Indigenous population are taken out of the equation, their land imagined as an unoccupied, unclaimed, or poorly utilized space that is free to be explored and ultimately exploited.

Gore, Graham (c. 1843): The 'Beagle' in the Bass Straits
Source: © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (UK). Object ID PAH0067 (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Discoveries in Australia most likely utilized steel or copperplate engravings based on original sketches. Owed to the manual handiwork and chemical processes involved in the creation of an engraving, the illustrations in Stokes' account are not exact copies of the original sketches, but abridged versions, thus, there is a possibility that details have been lost during the transfer between the different media. Only two original sketches from Gore's time aboard Beagle have been identified by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (UK). Neither of them were used in the final version of Discoveries in Australia.

oil on canvas (c. 1842/post 1846) after Gore, Graham (c. 1841-1843): Burial Reach, Flinders River
Source: National Library of Australia, Canberra. Object ID 347849 (PDM 1.0)

An oil painting, depicting a landscape identical to an engraving in Discoveries in Australia, is currently in the possession of the National Library of Australia, Canberra. The piece has been attributed to Gore, most likely due to the choice of motif, but a lack of signature and provenance before 1964, as we have been informed in correspondence with the National Library of Australia, prevents a definite confirmation.

On the one hand, we do not know of any other oil paintings attributed to Gore, since the medium was not as commonly used by sailors, probably due to its lengthy drying time, instead favoring pencils, inks, and watercolors. On the other hand, among more accomplished artists it was not unheard of for sketches on simpler media to serve as first draft for more elaborate pieces in oil on canvas. Additionally, contemporary accounts suggest that from approximately March 18 to March 31, 1842, Gore might have stayed with his family in Goulburn (Argyle, Col. New South Wales / Australia), around 115 to 145 miles away from Port Jackson in Sydney (Cumberland, Col. New South Wales / Australia), from which Beagle did not depart until April 14. While it might seem like a stretch, it is not entirely implausible that the painting was made during this short period of time.


In the future, we plan to discuss in depth all of the art featured on the website. There are some pieces which we have not yet been given permission to share here, but can be viewed online, and we have provided you with links to find them. It will be up to you to decide if you agree with Fitzjames’ assertions on Gore’s abilities.

JK Spallek, Contribution by Katie Pitt
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