Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

Greenhills, County Tipperary, Ireland

Biography

painter, lithographer(?), draughtsman and zoo director, was born on 5 March 1831 at Greenhills, County Tipperary, Ireland, eighth son of the nineteen children of Rev. William Minchin, the Dunkerrin parson, and Mary Ann, née Wright. In 1851 Richard migrated to Adelaide in the Stag . Three years later he moved to Victoria where he became clerk of the court at Bacchus Marsh. After marrying Ellen Rebecca Ocock at Melbourne, they returned to Adelaide in 1857 and Minchin obtained a position as clerk in the civil service. In 1859 he was promoted draughtsman at the Land and Titles Office. According to his obituary, he was at some stage drawing master at Prince Alfred Boys’ College. In the late 1850s Minchin produced several small lithographs of Adelaide buildings and it is probable, but not certain, that he put his sketches on the stone himself. Some, perhaps all, were printed by Penman and Galbraith . House of Parliament, Adelaide S.A. 1858 , Wesleyan Chapel, North Adelaide and Post Office, Adelaide S.A. are in the Mortlock Library, while Government House S.A. 1857 and St. Michael’s Church, Mitcham S.A. (c.1860) are in the Art Gallery of South Australia, which also holds his original drawing for Government House . In 1859 Minchin exhibited Dove Returning to the Ark and a drawing, Even as a Hen Gathereth her Chickens , with the South Australian Society of Arts, the latter being commended by the judges although neither won a prize. In 1862 he showed fifteen works and was awarded four prizes. The South Australian Advertiser commented that his exhibits were 'a very marked improvement on his former efforts’ and especially praised his prize-winning watercolours, Tela Hill and Horrock’s Pass . Hospital and Park Lands , however, was dismissed as a crude effort. He also won the competition for the society’s medal, for which he had submitted three entries. At the society’s next exhibition, in December 1863, Minchin won prizes for the best watercolour (also titled Horrock’s Pass ), the best original drawing of a South Australian scene ( On the Sturt ) and the best ink, wash or sepia drawing ( On the Light ). The critic from the Advertiser praised his ability to capture sublime effects, with some reservations: 'In everything that pertains to massive rock, dark and frowning hills, and gloomy passes, Mr. M. frequently borders on the grand and the eye recognizes great individuality and dignity; but in those works where the chief charm would be a rich and mellow tone – a breadth of light and shade – there is a marked deficiency’. In 1864 Minchin was again awarded the 5-guinea prize for the best watercolour painting, Creek near the Black Hill . This time the Advertiser 's lengthy appraisal condemned the work as 'a pretty little sketch’ which lacked character: 'The worst part of it is the tree on the bank to the left, which is a great deal too high – to measure by the human figures introduced – and its stems and branches do not grow naturally’. Despite further prizes in 1865 and 1866, the Advertiser became increasingly hostile, commenting that Steamboat on the Murray , awarded the prize for the best painting illustrative of colonial life in 1866, was 'not a painting properly so called, being a mere small sketch without any finish whatever, and miserably weak and flat’. Another prize-winner, Glenelg from the North Shore , was judged the best of Minchin’s offerings that year solely because it seemed to have had a little more care bestowed upon it. Minchin also won a prize for his design for the society’s Certificate of Merit at this exhibition. It showed Rubens on the left and Venus on the right, water-lilies at the base and rushes in the background which, the Advertiser stated, looked like fireworks, although 'notwithstanding these eccentricities, the design is on the whole not ugly’. Minchin continued to win prizes in 1869, 1870 and 1871, one novel exhibit being a specimen of ornamental writing suitable for an address or testimonial which won a guinea prize when lent by Townsend Duryea in 1869. At the same exhibition Minchin’s eldest son, Ernest William , made his debut in what was to be a long artistic career, winning a drawing prize in the under-sixteen section. It is perhaps worth noting, in the light of Minchin senior’s subsequent zoological career, that the several prizes he won in 1871 were for animal drawings. That year he also held a separate exhibition of his own consisting of loan works from private collections and watercolours of New Zealand subjects painted on a recent visit. The New Zealand works predictably demonstrated his continuing interest in sublime subjects, several being said to show 'the wildness and grandeur’ considered characteristic of that country, and all were represented in what was stated to be 'painstaking’ detail. A watercolour of Milford Sound dated 1878 (ATL) suggests that this was not his last visit to that country and he probably combined sketching trips with visits to members of his family who had settled near Christchurch after the sale of Rev. William Minchin’s estate in 1852. From 1870 until 1882 Minchin worked on contract to the Lands and Titles Department. Then he was appointed director of the new Adelaide Zoological Gardens, having for many years been honorary secretary of the local Acclimatization Society which founded it. He visited South-East Asia in 1885 and Europe in 1887 in order to collect specimens. After contracting a wasting disease at Hong Kong in 1889 and becoming an invalid, he and his family moved to the reputedly healthier air of Mount Barker. Minchin died there on 4 January 1893, survived by his second wife Ellison Barbara (Ellen), née Macgeorge, whom he had married in 1883, and the two sons and three daughters of his first marriage. The Art Gallery of South Australia holds Minchin’s watercolour Wild Dog Creek Station, Mount Remarkable, Melrose as well as other works such as an album of watercolour sketches of Pewsey Vale and Wongalere given to Jane Gilbert in 1864. On 25 November 1865 the Illustrated Melbourne Post published The Drought in the Far North, South Australia: An Out Station from a sketch by Minchin. The Mitchell Library holds his watercolour Mount Serle (1875). Writers: Staff Writer Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 5 March 1831

Summary

Painter, lithographer(?), draughtsman and zoo director, migrated to Adelaide from Ireland in the 1850s, won many prizes at the South Australian Society of Arts with landscape and genre paintings.

Gender

Male

Died

4 January 1893

Age at death

62