About this module

This module is specifically focused on the elements of the curriculum where students ‘build on their awareness of how and why artists, craftspeople and designers realise their ideas through different visual representations, practices, processes and viewpoints’ and ‘draw on artworks from a range of cultures, times and locations as they experience visual arts’.

Designed to give teachers flexibility, the content of this module is based on the exhibition A Nation Imagined: The Artists of the Picturesque Atlas shown at the National Library of Australia in 2021.

Publishing pictures

• Get students thinking about how and where people actually saw art of all types in nineteenth-century Australia. How connected were Australian artists with international art movements at the time?
• Conduct a broad discussion about the developments in technological processes for reproducing images in print. How did this change the way people engaged with artworks?

Making art and money

Released in 42 supplements between 1886 and 1889, the Atlas attracted more than 50,000 subscribers willing to pay a total of ten guineas ($1200 in current prices) by instalments. Their reward was an exceptional publication.

The Atlas introduced Australians to American innovations in marketing. Its ‘canvassers’ promised subscribers exceptional art celebrating their colony and continent, only costing five shillings on the arrival of each new supplement. This eventually led to many court battles and a parliamentary inquiry into the Atlas’s sales tactics.

• With the class, examine examples of the different ways artists have made a living throughout history. You might like to focus on patronage, workshops and guilds, academies, the open market, publishing, government grants, etc.
• How have the circumstances of artists’ employment influenced their output? Consider subjects, materials, time frames, size and scope of works.
• Conduct a class discussion examining the differences between artworkers and artists.
  • Can the same person be both?
  • How do they work together (or not)?
  • Have these definitions changed over time?

What is picturesque?

Lavishly illustrated travel books had been popular long before the release of The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia. There are also examples of the kind of ‘high-end’ picturesque books that preceded the Atlas in Europe, and the settler-colonial nations of America and Canada.

‘Picturesque’ is an aesthetic concept concerned with the relationship between nature and architecture in the landscape. Coined by William Gilpin in Britain in the late eighteenth century, the movement was a way of ascribing particular ideals of beauty to a scene.

• Have students work in groups to devise a table for categorising the features of a picturesque scene. What is considered picturesque? What is not?

Concluding activities

This resource showcases only a small fraction of the more than 800 engraved artworks that graced the pages of The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia. Remember that if you would like to browse the Atlas, the full digitised version is available.

Considering art and national identity

Following an investigation of the art and artists featured in the Atlas, lead a discussion into its context using the following prompts:

• Why do you think the artists of the Picturesque Atlas developed their representations in these ways?
  • settler-colonial
  • imperialist
  • nationalist
  • picturesque
  • impressionistic
• Which voices and images are missing from these representations of history, landscapes, cities and towns, and daily life?
• The patriotic song Advance Australia Fair, which became Australia’s national anthem in 1984, was first performed just under a decade before the publication of the Picturesque Atlas. Do they contain similar notions of Australian history and identity?
• Are there any modern parallels to the Picturesque Atlas? Think of large-scale attempts to portray places, lifestyles and history for a popular audience.

Curriculum links

This resource has been developed with specific reference to three content descriptions for Year 9 and 10 students in the Australian Curriculum: Visual Arts:

• Conceptualise and develop representations of themes, concepts or subject matter to experiment with their developing personal style, reflecting on the styles of artists, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists (ACAVAM125)
• Evaluate how representations communicate artistic intentions in artworks they make and view to inform their future art making (ACAVAR130)
• Analyse a range of visual artworks from contemporary and past times to explore differing viewpoints and enrich their visual art-making, starting with Australian artworks, including those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and consider international artworks (ACAVAR131)

The resource also has relevance to the General Capabilities of Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking, Intercultural Understanding, and Personal and Social Capability.