London: A previously unknown portrait of British navigator Matthew Flinders, thought to have been painted by one of the first European artists to work in Australia just years before the explorer’s death, has been discovered as part of an English family’s private estate.
A portrait recently determined to be of Matthew Flinders.Credit: Rob Harris
The oil painting, which is at least 200 years old, is believed to be the work of William Westall, who at 19 was appointed by naturalist Sir Joseph Banks as the landscape artist on HMS Investigator, which under Flinders’ command was the first ship to circumnavigate Australia in 1802.
The shock discovery has gone on public display for the first time this week at St Mary and the Holy Rood, in Donington, a village in Lincolnshire, England, ahead of a reburial service in Flinders’ home church on Saturday. His remains, which were thought to have been lost, were unearthed in 2019 during an archaeological excavation at London’s Euston station.
Flinders is depicted in civilian clothes, much older and more heavyset than his well-known portrayal by French Mauritius artist Toussaint Antoine De Chazal, which was completed while Flinders was imprisoned and probably malnourished on the island during the Napoleonic Wars. That painting was bought by disgraced businessman Alan Bond for $780,000 in 1985. It was later purchased by the South Australian Art Gallery, with a private donation and assistance from the state government in 2000.
No record of the rediscovered portrait, acquired by a fine art dealer from a family in England’s south-west eight years ago, previously existed. About 70cm tall and 50cm wide, the painting, under the name of Unknown Explorer, was later bought by British art collectors Mark and Wendy Winter as a canvas for a “modest sum” prior to the pandemic. They have undertaken painstaking research to identify subject and artist, and to have it restored.
Matthew Flinders painted when he was younger by Antoine Toussaint de Chazal.Credit: Simon Schluter
“We originally thought it was a painting by Thomas Phillips, who painted many of the great men of the day including scientists, artists, writers, poets and explorers,” Winter said. “It very much matches his style, but we researched, and he kept very accurate records of his subjects and there was no mention Flinders, so we ruled him out.
“The painting is also very similar to Westall’s work, especially his self-portrait, and of course he worked with Flinders again when he returned to London when he was commissioned by the navy to paint nine pictures to illustrate Flinders’ A Voyage to Terra Australis.”
The couple have offered to sell the painting to the National Gallery of Australia. If an offer, at a significantly reduced price, is declined, it is likely to go to auction this year, at an estimated $1.4 million starting price. They say any profits would be put towards the Donington community’s efforts to build a museum for Flinders.