author
Augustus Earle
1793–1838
Known for turning restless travel into art, this early 19th-century painter worked with unusual independence and recorded places and people across South America, Australia, New Zealand, and the South Atlantic. His pictures are valued today for both their storytelling and their vivid eyewitness detail.
1 Audiobook
A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827
by Augustus Earle
About the author
Born in London on June 1, 1793, Augustus Earle became one of the first professional artists to build a career around travel rather than court or aristocratic patronage. Sources from the Royal Academy and major biographical references describe him as an artist and traveler whose life and work ranged across an unusually wide part of the world.
During his journeys he painted and sketched scenes in Europe, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and the South Atlantic. He is especially remembered for the works he made in colonial New South Wales and New Zealand, and for the vivid record he left of everyday life, landscapes, and encounters between cultures. He also sailed on HMS Beagle for part of its voyage, but poor health forced him to leave the expedition.
Earle died in London on December 10, 1838. His work remains important not only as art, but as a rich visual record of the places, people, and historical moments he witnessed firsthand.