Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Mrs Elizabeth Gray, Nareeb Nareeb, Western Victoria
possibly, Mrs Elizabeth 'Ebie' Murray (née Gray), London
thence by descent
Mr Keith Murray, Parton House, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
Private collection, United Kingdom

EXHIBITED
Possibly, The First Exhibition of the Victorian Academy of Art, Melbourne Public Library, Melbourne, 1870, cat. 160, as King Barrinbollarnie (sic)
Possibly, Victorian Intercolonial Exhibition, Melbourne Public Library and Museum, Melbourne, 6 November 1872, cat. 129 or 130, as Pen and Ink Drawing of Aboriginal
Possibly, The Second Exhibition of the Victorian Academy of Arts, Melbourne, 1872, cat. 160, as King Barrinbollarnie (sic)
Possibly, The London International Exhibition of 1873: The Victorian Exhibition, London, 14 April – 31 October 1873, cat. 17, as Pen and Ink Drawings of Aboriginal
Possibly, Centennial International Exhibition, Exhibition Building, Melbourne, 1889, as 'Barrinbittarney' Chief of the Nooryskurry Tribe of the River Hopkins


Irish artist Elizabeth Gray was born in Dublin in 1822 before settling in Victoria in the 1850s, where she met and married squatter Charles Gray on 19 March 1857. Charles had settled Nareeb Nareeb, a relatively isolated property south of Glenthompson, some 17 years earlier, and established himself as a highly successful sheep breeder.

Elizabeth, who primarily worked in watercolour and pen and ink, continued her artistic practice intermittently throughout the 1850s to 1870s. In 1867, when the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Alfred, arrived in the colonies, Mr and Mrs Gray were invited to a Sunday lunch with the Prince at Hopkins Hill, the neighbouring property as a guest of John Moffatt. Elizabeth presented His Royal Highness with two etched black swan egg vases depicting local scenery and mounted in silver by Kilpatrick and Co., jewellers of Collins Street, Melbourne. So impressed was the Prince that in January 1868, whilst still in Australia, he wrote to express his "sincere thanks for the beautiful and useful presents". He admired them so much that he later commissioned a second pair for his mother, Her Majesty Queen Victoria. These remain part of the Royal Collection Trust in the United Kingdom today. Elizabeth's talents were not only recognised by royalty. Between 1866 and 1872, she regularly exhibited watercolours and drawings of the local Indigenous people at several major exhibitions, often receiving honourable mentions.

The present work depicts Chief Timour (Barrinbittarney) standing proudly in what appears to be possum-skin regalia on the outskirts of Nareeb Nareeb station. This delicate pen and ink sketch is a testament to a positive relationship forged at the time between some European settlers and the local Indigenous. Both Charles and Elizabeth Gray were known to have befriended the local Indigenous population, employing them on the station. Later reminiscing of his time as a pioneer, Charles published a memoir titled Western Victoria in the Forties: "One of the most helpful and faithful of the natives was one called Timour, who was head of the tribe. When he died at an advanced age, he was buried in the station graveyard at Nareeb-Nareeb. The ceremony was carried out by members of his tribe. I provided a large gum tree from which two pieces of bark were cut. The body was laid between the pieces of bark and secured by thongs of kangaroo sinew."

Besides a handful housed in the collection of the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, few examples remain that showcase Elizabeth's evident illustrative ability. The present work, recently discovered in Scotland hung in Parton House, Dumfriesshire — owned by the Murray family, into which Charles and Elizabeth's fourth child, Elizabeth 'Ebie' Murray (née Gray), married into — and passed down through her son, Keith Murray.