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Robert Hawker Dowling
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Born
1827
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Died
1886
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Title
Grandfathers visit
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Date of Production
c.1865
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Medium
Oil on canvas
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Dimensions
74.0 x 64.0 cm
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Credit Details
Purchased, 1975
Robert Hawker Dowling
Grandfathers visit
One of the first people to
train as an artist in Australia, Dowling was taught by a
number of local artists in Tasmanian including Thomas Bock.
In 1856 he returned to England to pursue his ambition to become
recognized on a wider stage than was possible in the colonies.
Grandfather's visit was one
of four works that Dowling painted shortly after his arrival in
London. The artist sent this group of paintings out to
Launceston in 1866 to be raffled at an Art Union. Reflecting
the taste of the period for narrative scenes developed out of
domestic subjects, Dowling has depicted a nursing mother seated in
front of an old man, who has dropped his top hat onto the floor
near a cradle, in order to take hold of his grandchild. An
elderly woman, possibly the grandmother, stands alongside the young
woman, but the rapt focus of attention of all three adults is
on the new addition to the family. While this is
a celebration of a family's continuity over three generations, the
scene also poses a question about the absence of the father, which
can only be answered by the imagination of the viewer.