Day: June 6, 2007

Clifford & Nevin portraits with hand-colouring

June 6, 2007

Professional photographers Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923) and Samuel Clifford (1827-1890) were close friends and colleagues over a period dating from ca. 1865 to Clifford’s death in 1890. Both maintained photographic studios in Hobart, producing commercial stereographs in significant numbers, as well as providing the local population with studio portraits. The colouring in this carte and others from a similar provenance (northern Tasmania and Victoria) is sometimes mistakenly assumed to be the work of the studio colourist, which was not the case (McPhee QVMAG, 2007). The colouring was applied after the purchase of the print by a family member, probably by a child playing with a small hand-held stereoscopic viewer. … More Clifford & Nevin portraits with hand-colouring

The Australian People: six prisoner cdv’s by T. J. Nevin

June 6, 2007

The six cartes-de-visite of Tasmanian convicts in oval mounts published in The Australian People (J. Jupp, ed, 2001) were reproduced from the National Library of Australia’s (Pictorial) collection of Thomas J. Nevin’s convict portraits . Some are dated 1874 on the verso, with the inscription “Taken at Port Arthur, 1874”, which now appears to be touristic spin rather than fact, written decades later in a cataloguist’s hand probably by Edward Searle while working at John Watt Beattie’s convictaria museum and studio in Hobart between 1911-1915. The majority of extant prisoner photographs in public collections – more than 300 – were taken by Thomas J. Nevin (and his brother Constable John Nevin) at the Supreme Court and Hobart Gaol on the occasion of the prisoner’s incarceration and discharge between 1871-1884. … More The Australian People: six prisoner cdv’s by T. J. Nevin