Portrait of Frances Amelia Skipper

Oil portrait by South Australian colonial artist and solicitor John Michael Skipper of his first wife Frances Amelia Skipper, nee Thomas. The canvas is striped mattress ticking, indicating the difficulty of obtaining materials in Adelaide at the time. The painting is attached on its original timber auxiliary support but with the two side members of the auxiliary support mistakenly reversed.

Frances Amelia Skipper was the eldest daughter of Robert and Mary Thomas who arrived in South Australia aboard the Africaine in 1836. Her future husband, John Michael Skipper, also emigrated to South Australia aboard the Africaine. The couple married in December 1839. Both were interested in art and Frances accompanied her husband on his trips into the bush surrounding the growing town of Adelaide, assisting him with sketches and in some cases providing the basis for his work, in others completing his sketches. Watercolour portrait painting was her particular area of expertise. She is represented in the South Australian Art Gallery. Frances was also a gifted linguist and writer producing translations from French and Italian. After her death in 1855 John married her younger sister, Mary.

John Michael Skipper was a solicitor and clerk of the court at Port Adelaide, but he is perhaps better known for his art. A prolific artist, he produced many sketches aboard the Africaine and of the growing colony of South Australia. He is best known for the numerous and detailed sketches around the borders of the pages of Wilkinson's South Australia, its advantages and its resources.

Artlab Australia undertook cleaning of this painting in 2007-08: the paint film was significantly discoloured and darkened from a degraded varnish, oil coatings and years of accumulated surface grime and dust. There is a large area of loss along the bottom end. The loss goes through the various paint layers down to the raw canvas in places. There is darkened retouching over the paint loss area probably extending over original paint.

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