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James Shaw (artist)

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For the American artist, see Jim Shaw (artist). For other people, see James Shaw.

1836
1860
1875

James Shaw (12 January 1815 – 1 September 1881) was a Scottish painter, photographer, engraver, lithographer, surveyor, and lawyer. He was also an early colonist of South Australia.

Biography

Shaw was born on 12 January 1815 at Dumfries, Scotland to James and Isabella Shaw. His father was a clerk and proofreader who painted for pleasure, and his brother George Baird Shaw.

Shaw went to Edinburgh Royal High School, and then studied law at the University of Edinburgh.

In September 1836, sponsored by Justice Thomas McCornock, he left Edinburgh for Jamaica to be a bookkeeper. He painted in his free time. When people realised his talent, they started to ask him for commissions. In 1841, he became a surveyor and began taking portrait commissions.

In 1847, Shaw learned photography and became a photographer.

He married Janet Liddle Paterson on 5 July 1850. Together, they moved to Adelaide in the colony of South Australia. Janet died suddenly in 1868 aged 41, and he raised their six children alone after that. At some point he lived at 17 Wellington Street, Kensington, in a former pub which had been converted into a dwelling.

In 1857, he showed some of his paintings at the first exhibition of the South Australian Society of Arts, of which he was a founding member. He received an honourable mention. He continued to paint and exhibit his works until 1871.

Shaw produced two paintings of the ship Admella, which are held in the Art Gallery of South Australia: the first shows the intact ship, painted in 1858, and the second, a dramatic imagining of the ship getting wrecked on a reef at Cape Banks in 1859.

Art

The Art Gallery of South Australia holds the major collection of his work.

References

  1. ^ "James Shaw: biography at Design and Art Australia Online". Design & Art Australia Online. 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  2. Mark Butcher Architects (1994). "Heritage Survey: Kensington & Norwood" (PDF). p. 515.
  3. "The Admella". AGSA. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  4. "The Admella wrecked, Cape Banks, 6th August, 1859". AGSA. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  5. "James Shaw". AGSA - Online Collection. Retrieved 17 June 2024.

Further reading

External links

Some of James Shaw's works from the 1860s:

  1. Lunatic Asylum, North Terrace - List: Others: , , Photos: 1869, 1870, 1875, 1887
    1935 photos: Former Lunatic Asylum, Old Lunatic Asylum, East of Botanic Gardens
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