William Duke
| First name | William |
|---|---|
| Last name | Duke |
| Country of Origin | Ireland |
| Date of Birth | 1815 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1840 |
| Submitted by | Lillian Dillon |
Story
William Duke was born in Cork, Ireland in 1815 to Charles & Mary Duke, & worked as a carpenter like his father. In 1840 at Rathcooney, Glanmire he married Lucy Duke, daughter of James & Mary Duke, & within a year they embarked for Australia as assisted immigrants on board the “Lady McNaughten”. A son Charles was born during the voyage but died a year later in NSW. The family arrived in Sydney 16 Dec 1840, both Wm. & Lucy then aged 25. William is listed as a House Carpenter, his wife a Dressmaker. William was engaged as a carpenter/mechanist at the Theatre Royal in Sydney & after a shift to New Zealand eventually settled in Hobart where he made a name for himself in the local community as a artist.
He became quite a personality around Hobart during his years there, working with the Royal Victoria Theatre in Campbell St. Hobart & painting various colonial whaling scenes & other aspects of early life in the colony. As a scene painter he was highly regarded artistically & personally. & was so popular that in a December 1845 pantomime “Harlequin” for which Duke painted the scenery & in which various well-known Hobart residents were parodied, Scene V was entitled “Duke the Painter’s Shop”.
He was extremely versatile in that he painted portraits, illustrated public lectures, carved the figurehead of “The Fair Tasmanian” and the carving of the figure-head of the barque “Derwent” 6’3″ in height . The La Trobe Picture Collection has a reproduction of “The Straitsman” 1849 by William Duke, which was reproduced in the BHP “History of Bass Strait” series No.10 “Whaling in Bass Strait.
Some of his paintings hang in the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Wm.Crowther Library Hobart, Queen Victoria Museum Launceston, National Library in Canberra, & Geelong Art Gallery in Victoria, as well as some private collections. Several of his drawings & paintings are referred to in various books on Colonial Art. His two Maori half-length portraits, presumably commenced in N.Z are now part of the Rex NanKivell Collection in the National Library of Australia in Canberra. The subjects were Makatu & Chief Hone or John Heke, and the signature W. Duke 1846 makes these two the earliest works by Duke known to have survived.
The local papers often included glowing accounts of his various works and in November 1847, DUKE and his partner Richard JOHNSON were to open a “Grand Diorama” for exhibition at the Music Hall, Collins St. The newspapers described the near completed exhibition in the most glowing terms, “The first Exhibition of the kind ever before witnessed in the colony” commenting on the artist’s skill & his particular talent for presenting panoramic views. However only a month later the partnership between Duke & Richard Johnson was dissolved and the family moved to Victoria where he hoped to recoup the financial losses he suffered. In 1851 he lived in Bellerine St. Geelong & it was during this time he painted “Geelong from Mr.Hiatt’s, Barrabool Hills” which now hangs in the Geelong Art Gallery.
He continued portrait & scene painting in Geelong and at the time of his death was engaged on painting & decorations for a Mr. Rowe. His wife & young family of 6 children were left destitute by his early death at 36. His family eventually prospered and his many descendants can now be found in all States of Australia. For a full family history see http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/10421 .