(John) Thomas Baines (27 November 1820 – 8 May 1875) was an English artist and explorer of British colonial southern Africa and Australia.
Life and work
Thomas Baines, Thomas Baines with Aborigines near the mouth of the Victoria River, N.T., 1857: oil on canvas; 45 x 65.5cm. National Library of Australia
Born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, on 27 November 1820, Baines was apprenticed to a coach painter at the age of 16.[1] When he was 22 he left England for South Africa aboard the "Olivia" (captained by a family friend William Roome) and worked for a while in Cape Town as a scenic and portrait artist, and as official war artist during the so-called Eighth Frontier War for the British Army.
Self-portrait at age 38. Oil on canvas. William Fehr Collection
In 1855 Baines joined Augustus Gregory's 1855–1857 Royal Geographical Society sponsored expedition across northern Australia as official artist and storekeeper.[1] The expedition's purpose was to explore the Victoria River district in the north-west and to evaluate the entire northern area of Australia in terms of its suitability for colonial settlement.[2] His association with the North Australian Expedition was the highpoint of his career, and he was warmly commended for his contribution to it, to the extent that Mount Baines and the Baines River were named in his honour.
From 1861 to 1862 Baines and James Chapman undertook an expedition to South West Africa.[4] Chapman's Travels in the Interior of South Africa (1868) and Baines' Explorations in South-West Africa (1864), provide a rare account of different perspectives on the same trip.[5] This was the first expedition during which extensive use was made of both photography and painting, and in addition both men kept journals in which, amongst other things, they commented on their own and each other's practice.
William Barry Lord lavishly illustrated by Thomas Baines Shifts and Expedients of Camp Life, Travel and Exploration (1876)
"Thomas Baines of King's Lynn, Artist and Traveller". by Henry J. Hillen. serialised in "The King's Lynn News and Norfolk County Press" published between 12 March and 10 September 1898. Transcribed copies are in the King's Lynn Library, and Museum.
12Gunn, Mary (1981). Botanical exploration of southern Africa: an illustrated history of early botanical literature on the Cape flora: biographical accounts of the leading plant collectors and their activities in southern Africa from the days of the East India Company until modern times. L. E. W. Codd. Cape Town: Published for the Botanical Research Institute by A.A. Balkema. pp.85–86. ISBN0-86961-129-1. OCLC8591273.
