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C1880
The Kelly Gang. – Finding Byrne’s Body…
Rare c.19th engraving depicting the finding of Byrne’s body. The events that led to the finding of Joe Byrne’s body at Glenrowan in June 1880 were the culmination of escalating conflict between the Kelly family and the colonial police in … Read Full Description
$A 165
S/N: ISN-BUSHR-800710013C–228417
(DRW01)
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Details
Full Title:
The Kelly Gang. – Finding Byrne’s Body.
Date:
C1880
Condition:
In good condition
Technique:
Engraving.
Image Size:
221mm
x 150mm
Paper Size:
248mm
x 186mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1880
Description:
Rare c.19th engraving depicting the finding of Byrne’s body.
The events that led to the finding of Joe Byrne’s body at Glenrowan in June 1880 were the culmination of escalating conflict between the Kelly family and the colonial police in north-eastern Victoria.
Tensions had simmered for years in the rural districts around Greta and Beechworth, where selectors of Irish background, including the Kellys, frequently clashed with police over stock theft and alleged harassment. The crisis intensified in April 1878 when a police party went to the Kelly home at Stringybark Creek to arrest Dan Kelly on a horse-stealing charge. A confrontation followed in the Wombat Ranges during which three policemen were shot dead. Ned Kelly, his brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart were declared outlaws, and a large-scale manhunt began.
Over the next two years the gang carried out a series of armed robberies, most notably at Euroa and Jerilderie, presenting themselves as political rebels protesting police corruption and class injustice. Byrne, the most educated member of the group, assisted Ned Kelly in drafting the Jerilderie Letter, a lengthy manifesto defending their actions and denouncing the authorities.
By mid-1880 the gang devised an ambitious plan to derail a special police train at Glenrowan, intending to capture hostages and perhaps spark a wider uprising. On 27 June 1880 they seized the Glenrowan Inn, owned by Anne Jones, and held residents captive while forcing local railway workers to tamper with the track. A schoolteacher, Thomas Curnow, escaped and warned the approaching train, preventing disaster.
Police surrounded the hotel before dawn on 28 June. During the prolonged siege heavy gunfire was exchanged. Joe Byrne, who had been drinking and was moving within the hotel, was shot in the groin by police fire through a gap in the building’s structure. He bled to death inside the inn during the night.
Julian Rossi Ashton (1851 - 1942)
Ashton was born in England, the elder son of a wealthy American, Thomas Briggs Ashton and his wife Henrietta, daughter of Count Carlo Rossi, a Sardinian diplomat. Soon after his birth the family moved to Cornwall, where his father, an amateur painter, encouraged the artistic leanings of Julian and his brother George. About 1862 the Ashtons moved to Totnes on the River Dart, where Julian attended the local grammar school, but his father died and the family, now in financial straits, went to London. Julian had art lessons from an old friend of his father whose teaching he described as 'the most helpful I ever had'. At 15 he took a job in the civil engineering branch of the Great Eastern Railway and attended the West London School of Art at night. After three years he joined a firm of ironmongers as a draftsman, but soon left to become a successful illustrator for such journals as Chatterbox and Cassell's Magazine. In 1873 he spent a few months at the new Académie Julian in Paris, and subsequently had work accepted by the Royal Academy of Arts. Ashton emigrated to Melbourne in 1878 to work as an artist for the Illustrated Australian News. In 1881 he worked at the Australasian Sketcher and in 1883 moved to Sydney to work on the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and the Bulletin. Ashton became an influential patron and supporter of Australian through his roles as trustee of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales and numerous associations that he belonged to. He was awarded the Society of Artists' medal for distinguished services to Australian art in 1924, appointed C.B.E. in 1930, and won the Sydney sesquicentennial prize for a water-colour in 1938.
