Kelly & Cussen's Pearl Shelling Station on Prince of Wales Island, Torres Straits 1897

JENNER, Isaac Walter - Creator

Artwork Kelly & Cussen's Pearl Shelling Station on Prince of Wales Island, Torres Straits this artwork made of Oil on canvas, created in 1897-01-01

Accession No.: 2020.391
Date Created: 1897
Gallery location: Not on public display
Department: Australian Art
Dimensions A: 24.5 x 44.5cm
Media Category: Painting
Secondary Media Category: oil
Medium: Oil on canvas
Place Created: Brisbane
Credit Line: Gift of Geoffrey and Lorelle St Clair in memory of Arthur and Rosamond Smith through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2020

These two works — Kelly & Cussen's and O'Hagan & McAlister's — depict pearl-shelling stations located on islands in the Torres Strait near Thursday Island. When Jenner immigrated to Australia in 1883, his first Australian port of call was Thursday Island, where the RMS Roma briefly docked on 17 September. As the main port in the Torres Strait for the pearling industry, it would have been a remarkable sight for the new emigrants: pearl luggers, pearl shell traders and divers at work from many nations, including the Torres Strait, Malaya, the Philippines and Polynesia.

Prince of Wales Island and Friday Island are visible from Thursday Island, so Jenner may have made observations and sketches while stretching his sea legs after the long journey. Likely, the RMS Roma sailed close to the stations seen in these paintings while enroute to Thursday Island. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, pearl shelling was an essential industry in Queensland, supplying European markets with the highly sought-after commodity.

QAGOMA conservationists cleaned and restored this painting in 2022–23, as seen in the before–after slider below.

A yellowed and damaged oil painting of a pearl shelling station set upon a tropical beach.

An oil painting of a pearl shelling station set upon a tropical beach, recently restored, with bright blue skies and seas.

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