(b London, 1767; d Hobart, Tasmania, 11 July 1851). English painter, printmaker and sculptor, active in Australia. In London he exhibited six portraits at the Royal Academy (1817–23) and three genre paintings at the British Institution and engraved two colour plates for George Morland, before moving to Hobart, Tasmania, in 1832. At the Hobart Mechanics’ Institute in 1833 he delivered the first lecture in Australia on the subject of painting. In 1849 he contributed the paper ‘The School of Athens as it Assimilates with the Mechanics Institution’ to a series of seven lectures (later published) delivered at the Institute. Duterrau painted landscapes and portraits but is best known for his works depicting the Aborigines of Tasmania and their traditional way of life. He was very interested in the events that led to the exclusion of the Aborigines from Tasmania, and in a series of works begun in 1834 but not executed until the early 1840s he showed George Augustus Robinson under commission from the Governor of Tasmania to restore peace with them. The Conciliation (1840; Hobart, Tasman. Mus. & A.G.) depicts Robinson’s meeting with the Aborigines, who had been rounded up by the government with the aim of accommodating them on a reserve. This large painting was described by William Moore (1868–1937), the critic and historian, as Australia’s first historical picture. When the Aborigines arrived in Hobart, Robinson would take them to the studio where Duterrau used them as models and also made etchings and plaster sculptures of them.

• Duterrau, Benjamin
  • Australia, §III, 1(i): Painting and graphic arts, before c 1900
  • Australia, §XIII: Art education