By Rob Harris
London: A previously unknown portrait of British navigator Matthew Flinders, thought to have been painted by one of the first European artists to work in Australia just years before the explorer’s death, has been discovered as part of an English family’s private estate.
A portrait recently determined to be of Matthew Flinders.Credit: Rob Harris
The oil painting, which is at least 200 years old, is believed to be the work of William Westall, who at 19 was appointed by naturalist Sir Joseph Banks as the landscape artist on HMS Investigator, which under Flinders’ command was the first ship to circumnavigate Australia in 1802.
The shock discovery has gone on public display for the first time this week at St Mary and the Holy Rood, in Donington, a village in Lincolnshire, England, ahead of a reburial service in Flinders’ home church on Saturday. His remains, which were thought to have been lost, were unearthed in 2019 during an archaeological excavation at London’s Euston station.
Flinders is depicted in civilian clothes, much older and more heavyset than his well-known portrayal by French Mauritius artist Toussaint Antoine De Chazal, which was completed while Flinders was imprisoned and probably malnourished on the island during the Napoleonic Wars. That painting was bought by disgraced businessman Alan Bond for $780,000 in 1985. It was later purchased by the South Australian Art Gallery, with a private donation and assistance from the state government in 2000.
No record of the rediscovered portrait, acquired by a fine art dealer from a family in England’s south-west eight years ago, previously existed. About 70cm tall and 50cm wide, the painting, under the name of Unknown Explorer, was later bought by British art collectors Mark and Wendy Winter as a canvas for a “modest sum” prior to the pandemic. They have undertaken painstaking research to identify subject and artist, and to have it restored.
Matthew Flinders painted when he was younger by Antoine Toussaint de Chazal.Credit: Simon Schluter
“We originally thought it was a painting by Thomas Phillips, who painted many of the great men of the day including scientists, artists, writers, poets and explorers,” Winter said. “It very much matches his style, but we researched, and he kept very accurate records of his subjects and there was no mention Flinders, so we ruled him out.
“The painting is also very similar to Westall’s work, especially his self-portrait, and of course he worked with Flinders again when he returned to London when he was commissioned by the navy to paint nine pictures to illustrate Flinders’ A Voyage to Terra Australis.”
The couple have offered to sell the painting to the National Gallery of Australia. If an offer, at a significantly reduced price, is declined, it is likely to go to auction this year, at an estimated $1.4 million starting price. They say any profits would be put towards the Donington community’s efforts to build a museum for Flinders.
Westall’s job on the Investigator was to record landscapes but during the latter half of the voyage, he switched his focus in favour of portraying people and events. Winter said a key detail in the portrait was Flinders holding his famed chart dividers over a map that appears to portray the land around Kangaroo Island and Adelaide.
“Westall was not a mapmaker or draughtsman,” he says. Westall was often criticised for using loose details or for creating his own interpretation when it came to maps or section drawings.
The portrait is believed to have been painted at the end of Flinders’ life, as he appears older and more heavyset.Credit: Rob Harris
“The angle of the painted image leads to a foreshortening of the map image whilst still keeping a credible comparison.”
Winter, who believes the painting belongs in one of Australia’s most important galleries, also used artificial intelligence facial comparisons on the painting from another confirmed portrait of Flinders.
“The match was confirmed to be 78.89 per cent,” he said.
Westall’s landmark Australian drawings were sold to the Royal Colonial Institute in London by his son, Robert, in 1889. The collection was offered for sale by the Royal Commonwealth Society in 1968 and it was purchased by the National Library of Australia.
British art historian Danielle Burke, who has worked on the restoration of the piece, said the overall appearance and aged deterioration pointed to the painting being no later than the early 19th century. Flinders returned to London in 1810 and died of suspected kidney failure in 1814.
She said that without surviving paperwork, it was impossible to give a conclusive answer but many of the painting’s characteristics aligned with Winter’s research.
“It is certainly in the style that matches the regency era (1810s),” she said. “I would suggest it is likely to be Flinders at the end of his life, which is why he appears so differently to his well-known portraits which were composed in his prime.”
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