Joseph Hutchins Fowles (1810 - 1878)
Fowles arrived in Sydney from London in August 1838, accompanied by his wife, as cabin passenger on the Fortune.
He came to public attention in 1847 with his contributions to the first exhibition of the Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts in Australia. In July 1848 Fowles issued the first part of his series Sydney in 1848 which contained 'elegant' streets and buildings which were made with painstaking accuracy 'to remove the erroneous and discreditable notions current in England concerning this city'. By 1858 Fowles had won a new reputation when Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Chronicle designated him 'Our Colonial Herring' as a result of a series of portraits of 'celebrated Australian cracks', racehorses and riding horses.
By 1855 Fowles was training and examining young art teachers in drawing for the National Board of Education.
In an obituary notice he was described as 'Father of drawing in the city'.
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