John Michael Skipper draws on life in South Australian colony from the start in 1836 as an artist and solicitor
Life aboard the Africaine on its voyage to South Australia in 1836, depicted by John Michael Skipper, heading to the colony to be articled to its first advocate general and crown solicitor Charles Mann.
Images courtesy Art Gallery of South Australia and State Library of South Australia
John Michael Skipper was the first of many South Australian legal figures to shine in outside endeavours in the colony. Skipper’s outside skill as an artist portraying colonial life started as a passenger on the Africaine, one of the South Australia’s first fleet of ships that disembarked passengers at Holdfast Bay (Glenelg) in November 1836.
Skipper, born the son of a solicitor in Norfolk, England, was educated at Norwich Grammar School where he did well at classics and modern languages. He intended to study law but was more interested in art, encouraged by his uncle James Stark, a member of the Norwich school of landscape painting. Skipper left his law studies to join the Sherbourne, an East India Company ship bound for Calcutta.
On his return, he was articled to Charles Mann, appointed South Australia’s advocate general and crown solicitor. Skipper sketched scenes aboard the Africaine on its voyage to South Australia when he turned 21 and met his future wife Frances Thomas, daughter of Robert Thomas, proprietor of the colony’s first newspaper The South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register.
In 1840, Skipper was admitted as an attorney and proctor of the South Australian supreme court. Skipper was associated with Mann and future supreme court judge Edward Gwynne until 1843 when he started his own practice. He briefly joined the Victorian gold rush in 1852 but returned with many sketches but little gold and soon after to become the clerk of the Port Adelaide court.
Skipper had continued applying his gift as an artist to depicting life in the new colony. His sketches and paintings of the landscape, the flora, fauna and Aboriginal people of South Australia plus the streets, buildings, people, way of life and notable events of Adelaide had artistic and great historical interest. Most of his drawings and paintings were small, though his oil on canvas, Corroboree, painted in 1840 was an exception.
He illustrated Charles Sturt’s expeditions from descriptive notes by the explorer. He also illustrated copies of journals of his voyages and of South Australian almanacs, embroidering margins with small delicate drawings. Most remarkable was his illustration of his personal copy of G. B. Wilkinson's South Australia with about 360 tiny marginal sketches, including personal comments, reminiscences and puns.
