Warriors of New South Wales

Depicts Aboriginal men, wearing body paint and paint (or clay) on heads carrying spears and shields.This is one of the earliest works in the art collection which reveals much about the commonly held views of Aboriginal people during the Colonial period in Australia. John Heaviside Clark's image depicts a number of Aboriginal men wearing body paint, carrying spears and shields depicted in a theatrically aggressive manner.

Clark (c.1770-1863) was a landscape painter, commercial artist, book illustrator and engraver who worked in London. Although as an artist he espoused sketching directly from nature, it is doubtful that Clark actually visited Australia to record the Aboriginal warriors he so dramatically captures in this work. His work reveals the fanciful beliefs prevalent at the time of indigenous people as 'naked savages' and illustrations in this vein were largely designed to meet the British public's interest in the 'curiosities to be found in the colony of New South Wales'. This image was one of a series illustrating John Heaviside Clarke's 1813 book 'Field Sports, & c. &c. of the Native Inhabitants of New South Wales'. It was dedicated to Rear Admiral Bligh and published and sold by Edward Orme, printseller and publisher to His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Prince Regent.