Samuel Thomas Gill Britain, Australia, 1818-80
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About Samuel Thomas Gill
Born in England in 1818, S.T. Gill arrived in Adelaide in 1839 at age 21. Gill had trained and worked as an artist at Dr. Seabrooks Academy, Plymouth, and on arrival in Adelaide, advertised himself as a painter of portraits, animals and scenes, etc. and soon established a reputation as an illustrator and cartoonist. In 1851 he moved to the Victorian diggings and produced many series of lithographic views on the goldfields. Gill was deeply involved in recording with the brush many of our historical events having made an early expedition into the interior with J. A. Horrocks, painting in the style of Rowlandson. Many of his works are reproduced in early books, including Victoria Illustrated, Diggers and Diggings as they are in Victoria, Rambles in the Antipodes, The Australian Sketchbook, etc. His work, regarded as a valuable commentary on the life of the times.
Samuel Gill is one of the most prolific of the artists listed in our database, with the number of works offered for sale by auction since 1967 of 967, of which 679 (70%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $198,000 for Miscellaneous Sketches sold by Leonard Joel in April 2000. This year 6 works have been offered for sale. Works by Samuel Gill are held by the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia and a further five major public national galleries (see list below).
Samuel Thomas Gill 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 460
- Kerr, Joan. Dictionary of Australian Artists, Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870. Oxford University Press, Australia, 1993. Page 296
- Campbell, Jean. Australian Watercolour Painters: 1780 to the Present Day. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989. Page 314
- Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, an online resource for biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators.
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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