Thomas Griffiths Wainewright Australia, Britain, 1794-1847
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Where to buy or sell art works by Thomas Griffiths Wainewright
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About Thomas Griffiths Wainewright
Born in Chiswick, London in 1794, Thomas Wainewright, a painter and writer, left England for France in 1831. On his return he was sentenced to transportation for attempting to defraud the Bank of England, and arrived in Hobart in November 1837. After a period in a chain gang his health deteriorated and he was transferred to Hobart Hospital as a wardsman. He painted portraits of the gentry of the time, mainly as a payment for favours accorded to him. He was granted a ticket-of-leave in 1846 and died in Hobart the following year. In 2021 the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery presented the first exhibition of works by the convict artist, titled Paradise Lost: Thomas Griffiths Wainewright. The exhibition included Wainewright’s portraits of the colonial community of Hobart, and also works by the artists who were part of his circle before he was shipped to the colonies.
In our database, 37 works by Thomas Wainewright are listed as being offered for sale, the earliest in 1972, of which 26 (70%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $123,000 for Robert Kennedy Nuttall sold by Bonhams in August 2021. No works have been offered for sale this year, and the last sale we have recorded for the artist was in 2022. Works by Thomas Wainewright are held by the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and a further two major public national galleries (see list below).
Thomas Griffiths Wainewright is listed in the following standard biographical references:
- McCulloch, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch-Childs. The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 4th Edition, Aus Art Melbourne & The Miegunyah Press, 2006. Page 994
- Kerr, Joan. Dictionary of Australian Artists, Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870. Oxford University Press, Australia, 1993. Page 827
- Campbell, Jean. Australian Watercolour Painters: 1780 to the Present Day. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989. Page 376
- Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, an online resource for biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators.
- Australian Prints + Printmaking, a database listing printmaking artists from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region based on the print collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
Artists' Resale Royalty
Could the second and subsequent works by this artist sold after June 9, 2010 for over $1,000 be liable for the Artists' Resale Royalty? More info…
No, ineligible. The artist has been deceased for more than 70 years.
The Australian Art Sales Digest is a database of over 610,000 works by more than 12,000 artists who are listed as having either lived or worked in Australia or New Zealand, and an additional 36,000 foreign and other artists, offered for sale by auction in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1970s to the present day.
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