Conversations with the Collection

Richard Browne & Sigrid Wharton

RICHARD BROWNE

Born in Dublin in 1771, Richard Browne was sentenced to transportation in 1810, arriving in Sydney in 1811. From there he was transported to Newcastle for committing a second offence and remained there until 1817. In this watercolour Browne has given a face to the first people of the Hunter River region and provided valuable insights into our local history.

In his portrait of Coola-benn, Browne has used a profile bust portrait format to commemorate the Ash Island leader. This cameo style of portraiture, which was popular from the Classical period onwards, was frequently used in the depiction of powerful individuals.

SIGRID WHARTON
Asquith Girls High School
The Alternative: The Requiem of a Classical Cure (detail) (2010)
Painting

My body of work expresses my deep interest in the theories of Carl Jung regarding the unconscious mind and the archetypes that go with this. I have always been fascinated by romanticism and the idea of opposites as shown in my work, where there is a play on opposites relating to gender, love and despair, laughter and sadness. I have drawn together the threads of my passion for classical and contemporary music, painting, film and opera to tell a story of an individual who experiences a surreal series of events that show the extreme effects of deep emotion.

Download the ARTEXPRESS 2011 Education Resource.