William B Gould

William B Gould
born United Kingdom 1803; arrived Australia 1827; died 1853

Still life with dead game c. 1845
oil on board
Geelong Gallery
Purchased with funds generously provided by the Geelong Art Gallery Foundation, 2008

William Buelow Gould was transported to Van Diemen’s Land as a convict in 1827. He was assigned as a house servant to Dr James Scott, colonial surgeon and amateur botanist, and later Dr William de Little, a fish and marine enthusiast. Recognising Gould’s artistic talent and eye for detail, the men respectively engaged him to aid their research by creating drawings and watercolours of botanical plants, birds, and animal and fish specimen.

This engagement with subjects from the natural world formed the basis of Gould’s artistic career in Australia (particularly after he was made a free man in 1835).

He specialised in the genre of still life: this example with dead game is one of the earliest Australian paintings in the Gallery’s collection.