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2008.141.1

Watercolour painting depicting a person's face wearing a conical painted headdress with longitudinal zigzag motif. [FB 28/11/2019]

2008.141.1

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Collection type
Object
Description
Watercolour painting depicting a person's face wearing a conical painted headdress with longitudinal zigzag motif. [FB 28/11/2019]
Long description
Watercolour painting depicting a person's face wearing a conical painted headdress with longitudinal zigzag motif, painted on white paper. The pattern on the headress is painted with orange paint, topped with a feather plumage painted in black watercolour. The persons face has been drawn in pencil with features highlight in orange and black paint. The number 10 is written in orange pencil in the bottom right hand corner of the painting. [FB 28/11/2019]
Cultural groups
Arrernte
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1897
Date collected
Unknown
Acquisition information
Found unentered: 22/08/2008
Materials and processes
Material Watercolour Paint, Material Pencil, Process Painted, Process Drawn
Dimensions
Width 604 mm, Length 1322 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 2008.141.1
Research and responses

Philip Jones, Senior Curator of Anthropology at the South Australia Museum researched the possible provenance of the painting and came to the following conclusions in correspondence with Jeremy Coote: His initial thoughts were "It seems to represent an Arrente ceremonial performer wearing a headdress which featured in performances made for the early European visitors/tourists to Alice Springs. The exact design features in several photographs taken in Alice Springs during this period [1900s-mid 1920s]... I believe we can pin down he actual ceremony. Spencer and Gillen also documented it, I believe, but it seems to have been selected by the Arrente as a performance piece for visitors, featuring the tall wooden boards, painted in the same zig-zag style, surmounted by feathers, and anchored to a conical hat or headgear by means of strapping around the head..."

In later correspondence Philip Jones is able to identify the illustration: ..."It is the same image as was reproduced in Edward Stirling's report on the Anthropology section of the Horn Expedition (published in 1897). I don't have the volume here in front of me, but I'm referring to an image which I do have here (at home) - fig. 87 in D.S. Davidson's essay on 'Aboriginal Australian Decorative Art', published in vol. 9 of the Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society (1937), at p.125. The same image is reproduced in b/w, and captioned 'Painted Headdress with Longitudinal ZigZag Motif. Central Australia, Arunta - Loritja. (After Stirling)... Something else which struck me about the stye of the watercolour. It is rather similar to some watercolours which we have in our archive, drawn and painted by the ?Adelaide artist, S. Pank. He produced watercolour drawings for the 1897 volume, Prehistoric Arts, Works, Manufactures etc. of the Australian Aboriginal, written by Thomas Worsnop. The style appears pretty similar, and as we can now say that they were drawn at about the same time, and probably in Adelaide, Pank may well be the artist responsible..." [FB 28/11/2019]

Search terms: Picture and Graphic Art, Painting, Drawing

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