Allegorical Representation of the Progress of New South Wales since the Foundation of the Colony in 1788.

Artist:

Eugene Montagu (Monty) Scott (1835-1909)

Cartoonist and illustrator, in London, migrated to Victoria in the 1850s and worked as a photographer.

On 20 July 1859 in Melbourne he married Amy Johnson. In 1857-65 he contributed drawings and cartoons to the Illustrated Australian Mail, Illustrated Melbourne Post and Melbourne Punch. In 1866 Scott moved to Sydney as chief cartoonist for the Sydney Punch. In 1867 he received a 250 guineas commission for a portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh. He was established in a photographic salon in George Street and in the 1870s his large wood-engravings and lithographs of rugged outdoor scenes, formal functions and public personalities regularly enlivened the Illustrated Sydney News.

Bankrupt in June 1870, Scott was forced to sell his photographic equipment to meet his creditors. In 1871 the Sydney Mail employed him as its first artist. From 1880 the Bulletin carried some cartoons and occasional engravings of local dignitaries by Scott. The Brisbane Boomerang, founded 1887, ran his cartoons until 1891 when he drew the first cartoons for the Queensland Worker, continuing as its chief cartoonist until 1909. In 1889 he had moved to Brisbane and on 5 December married a widow, Mary Ellen Price, née Mehan; he lived there four years. 

In the ensuing years Montagu recived less work as photographic illustrations replaced engravings and lithographs.