Places: South Australia illustrated

ANGAS, GEORGE FRENCH (1822-1886), naturalist and painter, was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He was the eldest son of George Fife Angas, one of the men behind the establishment of the new colony of South Australia via the South Australian Company (BRG 42). The young Angas repudiated his father's world of commerce and determined upon a life involving art and nature, studying natural history art and lithography before embarking on his travels. He sailed for Australia in 1843 in the Augustus, reached Adelaide in January 1844.

In July 1844 Angas left the colony for New Zealand. He returned to South Australia in January 1845 and remained for six months. During the visits to South Australia, Angas travelled with William Giles to the area in the vicinity of the mouth of the River Murray, and accompanied Governor (Sir) George Grey to the south-east of the province, Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln. Angas recorded these journeys in water-colour drawings which were shown in the Legislative Council Chamber in Adelaide in June 1845.

With his impressive portfolio of water colours Angas then sailed for London and in 1847 published the folio South Australia illustrated, which has served ever since as a valuable 'snapshot' of the developing colony, and a record of the South Australian landscape before it was much changed by white settlement. See items below for more details.

Angas returned to South Australia in 1860, but ended his years in England where he published several books on Australia and Polynesia as well as illustrating accounts of exploration by John McDouall Stuart and John Forrest. Many of Angas' original watercolours are held in South Australian institutions: Art Gallery of South Australia; University of Adelaide; South Australian Museum; and Royal Geographical Society of South Australia.

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition See: Angas, George French.