Roger Butler
Printed images in Colonial Australia 1801-1901.
Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2007

Every so often comes a book which makes us rethink what we know. Roger Butler, senior curator of Australian prints and drawings at the National Gallery of Australia, has done that in his Printed: Images in Colonial Australia 1801-1901. Published to accompany the gallery’s exhibition, The Story of Australian Printmaking 1801-2005, the book – the first of three volumes on print-making in Australia – has a significant impact on our knowledge and understanding of Australian art.

This book, generously illustrated, offers scholars, curators, collectors and dealers, and anyone interested in the history of Australia, a remarkable amount of information. Printed Images by Australian Artists 1885-1955, and Printed Images by Australian Artists 1955-2005, will be published later this year.
John McPhee The Bulletin 16 April 2007

294 pages, 377 colour illustrations, 30 x 25 cm., Bibliography, Index.
ISBN 978-0642-54180-2 

Available from
The National Gallery of Australia Bookshop
PH: 61 2 6240 6438
FAX: 61 2 6240 6628
Order by email ecom@nga.gov.au

Distributed in Australia by Thames & Hudson
Distributed in England and Europe by Thames & Hudson
Distributed in The United States of America by Washington University Press

Review:
Books: Prints valiant by John McPhee The Bulletin 16 April 2007

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Acknowledgements

Printmaking in New South Wales before 1822
A wide perspective
Lewin: In the service of science
Forgeries and promissory notes
The first views: Absalom West’s publications
Forgeries and banknotes
The Wallis publication

Artisans and artists
The dominance of copperplate engraving
Images printed with text
The chapbook style in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and New South Wales
Lithographs: the first Twenty-five years (1825-50)

Printed images for all
Lithography – Gold rush consolidation
Printing in colour
Viewbooks
Lithography and science
Gift books by women artists
Chromo-lithographs
Sporting prints
The illustrated press
The rise and demise of wood-engraving
Pictorial supplements and the plight of the wood-engravers
The fine art of wood-engraving
Picturesque Atlas of Australasia
Printmaking and the application of photography

Bibliography
Index

SUBJECTS
Australian Art, Australian Printmaking, Colonial art, Printmaking history