Tara and Peroa, 1819

An authentic or a romantic record?

Making an Image

Alphonse Pellion (1796–1868) was an artist on an official French Pacific expedition, led by Louis de Freycinet, which called into Sydney in November 1819. Meeting two Aboriginal men, Tara and Peroa, near the Nepean River, he made a quick field sketch of them. The lively watercolour shows two full-length males, naked apart from their European jackets. It was later prepared for publication—its rough edges being smoothed into the black and white lines necessary to translate it into a print.

At some point it was decided not to go ahead with its publication. Instead, Tara’s head and shoulders were selected for inclusion in the print, Sauvages des environs de la rivière Nepean, published in the official account of the voyage, Voyage autour du monde (1824). In this hand-coloured print, Tara’s eyes—blue in the original watercolour—are now brown. The left arm of his jacket, which is complete in the original watercolour, is now torn and jagged at the top, for better pictorial effect. The new processes subtly changed the impact of the original drawing. Its directness was replaced by a smooth romanticism, which is, nonetheless, a much more sympathetic view of Aboriginal people than that being expressed by English colonists at the time.
Display item Tara and Peroa, 1819

 

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