William Strutt (3 July 1825 – 3 January 1915) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 artist.

Strutt was born in Teignmouth

Teignmouth

Teignmouth is a town and civil parish in Teignbridge in the English county of Devon, situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign about 14 miles south of Exeter. It has a population of 14,413. In 1690, it was the last place in England to be invaded by a foreign power...

, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, England, and came from a family of artists, his grandfather, Joseph Strutt, was a well-known author and artist, his father, William Thomas Strutt, was a good miniature painter. William Strutt enjoyed a student life in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France, and England, studying figurative and history painting. In response to a near-breakdown and problems with his eyes, Strutt decided to visit Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, arriving 5 July 1850 on the Culloden, where he then married.

In Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Strutt found employment as an illustrator on the short-lived Illustrated Australian Magazine, published by Thomas Ham, as there was little demand for the figurative and history paintings for which he was trained. Some of his designs did, however, lead to commissions, including a design for a new postage stamp, and an Anti-Transportation League card. Despite the lack of interest for major history paintings in Melbourne, Strutt continued to sketch suitable subjects, including the ‘Black Thursday’ bushfires, which swept over the colony on 6 February 1851. It was from these sketches that Strutt composed one of his most notable paintings some 10 years later, Black Thursday, February 6th. 1851, 1864, which depicted animals and men fleeing from the fire.

In February 1852, Strutt joined the growing tide of men travelling to the gold-fields surrounding Ballarat, Victoria

Ballarat, Victoria

Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...

. Despite working in the gold fields for eighteen months he found little success. He returned to Melbourne in mid-1853 and became actively involved in the city’s cultural scene, undertaking a number of portrait commissions and joining the Victorian Society of Fine Arts as a founding member.

Strutt’s interest in depicting the notable events of the colony was piqued by the events surrounding the Victorian Exploring Expedition led by Burke

Robert O'Hara Burke

Robert O'Hara Burke was an Irish soldier and police officer, who achieved fame as an Australian explorer. He was the leader of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from the settled...

 and Wills

William John Wills

William John Wills was an English surveyor who also trained for a while as a surgeon. He achieved fame as the second-in-command of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from the settled...

 in 1860-61. He made several studies of their preparations at Royal Park, Melbourne

Royal Park, Melbourne

Royal Park is the largest of Melbourne's inner city parks . It is located north of the Melbourne Central Business District, Victoria, Australia, in the suburb of Parkville....

, and followed the expedition to its first camp at Essendon, Victoria

Essendon, Victoria

Essendon is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 10 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Moonee Valley...

. Strutt also collected first-hand accounts from the rescue party and from John King

John King (explorer)

John King was an Irish soldier who achieved fame as an Australian explorer. He was the sole survivor of the four men from the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition who reached the Gulf of Carpentaria...

, the expedition's sole survivor, upon his return.

Strutt left the colony of Victoria in 1862, returning to England where he completed two major works based on Australian sketches, Black Thursday, February 6th 1851 and Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852. He continued to draw on his Australian sketches to produce major oil paintings, including The Burial of Burke. Strutt died in Wadhurst

Wadhurst

Wadhurst is a market town in East Sussex, England. It is the centre of the civil parish of Wadhurst, which also includes the hamlets of Cousley Wood and Tidebrook. Wadhurst is twinned with Aubers in France.-Situation:...

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, England on 3 January 1915.

Publications

• William Strutt, The Australian journal of William Strutt, A.R.A., 1850-1862 (Sydney?: s.n., 1958).
• Heather Curnow, The life & art of William Strutt, 1825-1915 (Martinborough, N.Z.: Alister Taylor, 1980).
• William Strutt, Victoria the golden: scenes, sketches and jottings from nature, 1850-1862 (Melbourne: Library Committee, Parliament of Victoria, c1980).
• William Strutt, Cooey, or, The trackers of Glenferry (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1989).

External links

• http://www.nla.gov.au/catalogue/pictures/Strutt's works in the National Library of Australia
  National Library of Australia
  The National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...
  
  , Canberra
  Canberra
  Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
  
   ]
• Strutt's work in the Picture Australia database
• Judy Cannon, ‘The artist who painted words’, NLA News, August 2004, Volume XIV, Number 11
• Heather Curnow, The New Zealand Paintings of William Strutt
• Black Thursday Online version of the original painting and a soundscape.

See also

Visual arts of Australia