William Westall, A.R.A.

William Westall ARA (1781 – 1850) is best known as one of the first artists to depict Australia, for, while studying at the Royal Academy Schools, he was chosen as a draughtsman to Flinders’ Australian expedition, which left London in July 1801. Arriving in December, Westall having nearly drowned in Maderia en route, the expedition then circumnavigated the continent between 1802 and 1803, the first Europeans to do so. After being shipwrecked in August 1803, Westall made his own way back via Canton and India, reaching London in February 1805. As Flinders was imprisoned on Mauritius, Westall realised that it would be some time before he would be asked to work up his sketches, so he travelled to Maderia and Jamaica, returning in 1806.

Between 1809 to 1812, Westall was commissioned by the Admiralty to create ten paintings based on his sketches of Australia, which today hang in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. As a result of this work, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. These paintings became the basis of the engravings in Flinders’ ‘A voyage to Terra Australis’, which was published in 1814.

In 1811, Westall published ‘Foreign Scenery’, comprised of landscapes depicting the Cape of Good Hope, China, India and Maderia. This was a successful undertaking which brought him to the attention of Rudolf Ackerman, who, in turn, commissioned numerous drawings from Westall, including views for his histories of Oxford, Cambridge and the Public Schools, and over a hundred drawings for ‘Great Britain Illustrated’.

Given his regular employment as an illustrator, and in contrast to his adventurous twenties, the rest of his life was spent in England, apart from a visit to Paris in 1847. His last exhibition was in 1848.

His work can be seen in the Tate Gallery in London, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

Additional Information
Tate
Royal Museums Greenwich
National Library of Australia