Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Broken Bay Tribe

Broken Bay Tribe

1834
Pencil and charcoal on paper
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952
DL Pd 43

Entrepreneurial in nature, Charles Rodius found a ready market among successful colonists for his elegant, technically sophisticated and often flattering portraits. Portraiture was a primary source of income for colonial artists: as one newspaper noted in 1847, when commenting on the local art scene: ‘self predominates in the orders given for portraits, ships, and “my horse”, and “my house” make up the subject of all the pictures, and vanity pays for these at a reasonable rate’[1]. Rodius also found unusual ways of expanding his business, advertising that ‘in the event of the loss of deceased friends or relatives’, he would, ‘produce a likeness after death capable of supplying affection’s broken link in the memory of the survivors’[2].

It seems that Rodius made portraits of Aboriginal people of the Sydney region to sell to travellers eager for images of the ‘curious’ original inhabitants of Australia or, as the Sydney Gazette noted, to locals wanting souvenirs to explain their new home to ‘friends in England’. The Sydney Herald of 2 October 1834 commented on the ‘extraordinary fidelity with which the characteristic countenance of these sable children of nature are delineated.’ Indeed, Rodius’ portraits often show a sensitivity and complexity that belies the simplicity of the materials used. Made at a time of widening dispossession, discrimination and terrible conflict between the colonists and Aboriginal people, Rodius’ portraits also seem remarkably composed.

Charles Rodius was a prolific portrait painter, mainly in pencil and charcoal, of many successful Sydney colonists. Subjects ranged from the colonial elite, such as members of the prominent Blaxland family, to successful ex-convicts like William Nash.

Rodius often sought to cash in on topical news stories: one of his best-known portraits is that of Ludwig Leichhardt, published in May 1846 to capitalise on the explorer’s return to Sydney on 25 March 1846 from his expedition to traverse northern Australia. He received a hero’s welcome, and Rodius clearly hoped that his portrait, which cost two shillings, would find sales among his fans. Another publisher issued a map to celebrate Leichhardt’s achievements, while local composer Isaac Nathan wrote a musical piece commemorating his return.

In early 1829, Charles Rodius was charged with having ‘relieved’ a woman, outside London’s Royal Opera House, of the smelling bottle, tickets, opera glass and handkerchief contained in her ‘reticule’, or handbag. Rodius denied the charge, claiming to have accidentally picked it up, but the discovery of many other handbags in his rooms strongly suggested his guilt. For his crime he was sent to the colony of NSW.

Charles Rodius published a series of six lithographic portraits of Aboriginal people in October 1834, which sold for one guinea (or about $115). It was said that their ‘fidelity of the likenesses will at once strike every beholder who has been any length of time in the colony.’*


Footnotes

*Sydney Gazette, 7 October 1834