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Articulating an understanding of, or interpreting a picture can be 'an untidy and lively affair',1 especially if, in doing so, we also seek to explain the past. The treatment to date by several Australian historians of the little known, but highly significant painting The Conciliation illustrates historian Michael Baxandall's point well. Produced in the British colony ofVan Diemen's Land by the minor artist Benjamin Duterrau following his arrival in 1832, the picture is today recognised by the Museum of Australian Democracy as the country's first historical epic painting, and one of the nation's founding documents. Such recognition might be expected to indicate that a detailed art historical analysis has been made of the picture; not simply to confirm its 'first' status, but also to explicate its meaning and significance as a key statement in the foundational narrative of the Australian nation. Yet, while there has been some energetic discussion of the painting's significance and interpretation, with few exceptions, the investigation of its content and influences has been less rigorous.
As a result, The Conciliation is currently seen as evidence of a successful détente in the British colony with resistance fighters who had opposed attempts to displace them from their country for nearly 30 years. During this time, the Aboriginal population was reduced from as many as 6000 to fewer than 600. Such a narrative offers a sense of legitimacy to British occupation, despite the depredations suffered by Tasmanian Aborigines at the hands of both lawless colonists and bounty hunters, either tolerated or authorised by the Governor. Recent scholarship exemplifies the value of such a narrative in implying a degree of justice in the outcomes of such conflict, and joins with historian Henry Reynolds in deferring assertions by other scholars that the campaign in Van Diemen's Land could be equated to a genocide.2
My analysis casts doubt on the assumption that Duterrau's history painting was intended to be a simple commemoration of an equitable treaty; a celebration of 'benevolent heroism'.3 Rather, I offer evidence that Duterrau's painting was invested with literary, iconographic and allegorical references that indicate a desire to represent a more complex picture of colonial triumph; one that also acknowledged the consequent loss and deception suffered by the Aborigines.
Benjamin Duterrau was 65 when...