ELIZABETH ACKNOWLEDGED

Commencing 7th - 18th of March 2023.

fortyfivedownstairs gallery, Melbourne.

I wanted to share with you the story of Elizabeth Gould.

Lived 1804-1841, Elizabeth was a British born natural history artist and illustrator, married to the well known ornithologist John Gould. Her sublime lithographs of birds were the force behind John Gould’s publishing empire and helped cement the Gould name in ornithological history. Elizabeth had a very short but eventful life, unfortunately dying just after giving birth to her eighth child.

An inspiring woman before her time, Elizabeth also learned the elaborate skill of Lithography. With Elizabeth’s drawings and John’s research, together they produced a number of significant books of ornithology. Elizabeth also illustrated Charles Darwin’s Galapagos finches and emus but there was no public recognition of her contribution to this important work.

Perhaps the largest undertaking for Elizabeth as a mother and wife was her courageous journey to Australia from 1838-1840. Leaving her younger children in London in her mother’s care, she travelled by sea with her eldest son on “The Parsee” accompanying John in his ambition to research and document Australian bird species as yet unseen in Europe for their book, The Birds of Australia. Over the years the acknowledgement of Elizabeth’s contribution was not always clear in the signage of the lithographs.

She died a year into the publication of The Birds of Australia and many of her beautiful illustrations and preliminary watercolours were finished off by H.C. Richter, further exacerbating a lack of recognition undoubtedly common to womens’ contributions or the scholarship of the era.

My homage to Elizabeth Gould celebrates her Australian journey 1838-1840. Included in these paintings are the re-working of the many Australian birds featured in Elizabeth’s now famously detailed lithographs, some of which replicate the dimensions of the lithographs created for The Birds of Australia. Building on the tradition of close observation as a way of comprehending the natural world and taking into account contemporary conditions, I have made works in which native flora and fauna are entwined, noting that some of these species are now extinct or endangered.

In a contemporary portrayal of Elizabeth I have set her against a backdrop of the Australian bush. Gentle triggers allude to her uncertainty in an unknown land, perhaps a fear of finding herself unwelcome. Drawing on a connection to experiences of migration in contemporary Australia, I worked with a model Nicole Beran for this painting who is herself from a migrant background of Czech and German extraction. In this way the woman in the painting with her long dress and travel trunk, is somewhat separate from the ancient world she is entering and yet she approaches it with much hope and trepidation.

My aim of this body of work is to bring an awareness of the life and work of Elizabeth Gould, together with a continuation of the task of observing and documenting the subtle beauty of native Australian flora and fauna, so many species of which are also at risk of disappearing without a trace.

I pay tribute to Wurundjeri people of the Eastern Kulin nations, and Yorta Yorta people, the traditional owners of the lands on which I live and work, and acknowledge their elders past, present and emerging.

Bronni Krieger, 2023