Crabs

One of twenty three original artworks of marine and plant life (originally in a sketchbook), executed by William Hoare, with notes by Peter Walker linking the artworks to references in Hoare's diary.

Hoare's images of crabs are precise and scientific in appearence. Firstly sketched in pencil, the artist has used vivid reds and browns and close attention has been paid to individual characteristics. The artist has taken care to realistically interpret the specimen.

The specimens were unidentified but have since been identified as marine crabs by Thierry Laperousaz, Collection Manager, Marine Invertebrates at the South Australian Museum on 11 August 2009. The crab in the top row is Lophozozymus incisus family Xanthidae. The crab in the second row is Charybdis [possibly acuta] family Portunidae. The crab in the bottom row left is Liomera [possibly venosa] family Xanthidae. The crab in the bottom row right is Pilumnus sp family Pilumnidae.

William Webster Hoare migrated to South Australia with his brother, P.E. Hoare, aboard the Irene in 1862. He was apparently trained as a pharmacist and obtained a position with the 1868 -1870 Goyder Surveying Expedition to the Northern Territory as assistant to the surgeon, Dr Peel. He filled his spare time in the camp sketching, and his notebook (series 1) contains many small sketches of natural history that he later worked up into full-size watercolour illustrations (series 4).

Goyder, recognising his talent and the contribution he could make, supported these endeavours, providing him with materials and time to work with the expedition's naturalist, Friedrich Schultze. After Hoare's return to Adelaide in 1870, he worked as a dispensing chemist before returning to Britain via New Zealand.

George Woodroffe Goyder was appointed Surveyor-General in 1861. He undertook several surveys in northern South Australia (1857-1866) and was instrumental in determining the line of demarcation between agricultural and pastoral land known as Goyder's Line.

The Library holds the papers of William Webster Hoare comprising artworks, photographs, scrapbooks and diary and map kept on the Northern Territory Survey Expedition 1868-1869, and notes about Hoare by Dr Philip Jones from the South Australian Museum.

Other sketches in the marine and plant life series include: Amyema loranthacea; Glaucus pacificus; Triacanthus biaculeatus (short nosed tripod fish); native plum; Taeniura lymma (blue spotted fantail stingray); orchids; Syzygium myrtaceae (type of lilly pilly); various flowering vines; and fish.

Copyright is assigned to the Libraries Board of South Australia with unreserved use by State Library of South Australia customers. 

Permission to use this item for any purpose, including publishing, is not required from the State Library under these conditions of use.

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