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サミュエル・トーマス・ギル[ 1 ]（1818年5月21日 - 1880年10月27日）は、署名STGとしても知られる、イギリス生まれのオーストラリアの芸術家である。
ギルは1818年にイングランド、サマセット州マインヘッドのペリトンで生まれた。父はバプテスト派の牧師サミュエル・ギル、母は最初の妻ウィニフレッド・オーク。ギル牧師はプリマスの学校の校長となり、息子はそこで最初に教育を受け、その後プリマスのシーブルック博士アカデミーに進学した。ロンドンに移ったギルは、ロンドンのハバード・パブリック・ギャラリーで水彩画を展示したり、製図技師として働いたりしたようだ。[ 2 ]
1839年12月17日、サミュエル・トーマス・ギル（またはSTギル）とその家族はカロライン号に乗ってアデレードに到着した。彼の父サミュエル・ギル（シニア）はコロマンデル渓谷に定住し、そこで郵便局長となり、12歳未満の男子のための「古典と数学の予備校」を開設した。[ 3 ]彼の息子STギルはアデレードのゴーラー・プレイスに部屋を開き、「注文に応じて制作する」肖像画や地元の風景画を宣伝した。[ 2 ]ギルの初期の作品の1つは、アデレードのヒンドレー・ストリートの眺めで、1844年にカラー版画として出版された。[ 4 ]
彼の活動はすぐに広がり、街の風景や公共のイベントも描くようになった。その中には、新たに発見されたバラバラの銅鉱山や、 1844年10月8日にチャールズ・スタート率いる探検隊が内陸部へ出発した様子などが含まれる。アデレード周辺地域をスケッチしながら旅した彼は、数多くの水彩画を制作した。
Gill took an interest in photography – ordering a daguerreotype camera and the other necessary equipment in 1846, and setting up as a professional photographer. With public interest in the new medium not forthcoming, Gill sold his camera to Robert Hall prior to his departure with John Horrocks' expedition northwards to the Flinders Ranges later in 1846. While on this expedition he made the first sketch of these ranges.[2] Horrocks, the first settler of South Australia's Clare Valley, mounted a small expedition to search for suitable farming land in the country northwest of Mount Arden in the southern Flinders Ranges. This expedition was the first in Australia to use camels but even so ended after Horrocks accidentally discharged his gun and received a charge of shot in his face. Gill dressed the wounds but 'mortification set in' and the young explorer died forcing the party to return to Adelaide.[5]
Upon his return Gill organised an exhibition to sell the watercolours and pencil sketches of this fateful trip but sales appear to have been slow and he was eventually forced to raffle them.[5] In 1849 he published Heads of the People, which contained 12 lithographic sketches of well-known South Australian colonists.[5]
In 1851 gold was discovered in Victoria and following a series of personal tragedies including bankruptcy and ill health, Gill joined a large group of South Australians heading for the Mount Alexander gold fields, Victoria. It is possible he tried his hand at gold-mining but presumably he had no luck as he was soon recording life on the gold fields and the emergence of substantial towns like those of Ballarat and Bendigo. By August 1852 he had published a set of 24 lithographs of "Sketches of the Victoria Gold Diggings and Diggers As They Are". Although they were described as "Part 1", no further parts were published.[4]
1852年後半、ギルはメルボルンに移り住み、金鉱地帯で描いたスケッチや水彩画の展覧会が大きな注目を集めたため、後にJSキャンベル社に引き継がれたリトグラフ印刷会社マッカートニー・アンド・ガルブレイス社がギルに依頼し、作品を石版に複製させた。[ 4 ]その結果は非常に好評で、全作品がロンドンで再出版された。[ 5 ] 1853年2月、彼はホロックス探検隊で描いたスケッチをもとに制作した水彩画を展示した。[ 4 ]
1854年までにギルはメルボルンに居を構え、シドニーでの1年間を除いて残りの人生をそこで過ごした。彼はそこで書店兼出版社のJJブランデル社に勤務し、コリンズ・ストリートにある同社の店舗の上にスタジオを構えていた。ブランデルの息子は、1853年にギルがこのスタジオで、必要な反転作業を助けるためにガラスを使って石に直接デザインを施していたことを回想している。その後、石は数軒隣のキャンベルとファーガソンの工房に送られ、そこで複製作業が行われ、出来上がった版画はリトグラフ作家と出版社の両方の名前が記されてブランデル社に返送された。[ 4 ]彼はまた、サンズとケニーの作品も制作し、この時期に石版画のほか、銅版画や鋼版画も数多く制作した。[ 5 ]
この成功の絶頂期に、ギルはシドニーに移り住み、アレンとウィグリーと共にニューサウスウェールズの風景やカンガルー狩りの出版に取り組んだ。[ 4 ]しかし1857年までに彼はメルボルンに戻り、サンズとケニーの精巧なビクトリア図鑑のデザインを提供した。[ 4 ]
Gill's skill as a lithographer resulted in the production of a number of works during this period. These included: The Australian Sketch Book (1855), Scenery in and Around Sydney (1856), Victoria Illustrated (1857), Sketches in Victoria (1860), Second Series of Victoria Illustrated (1862), and a set of coloured lithographs, Bush Life (1865). In 1859, Edward Wilson selected Gill to illustrate his book, Rambles in the Antipodes.[5] He also procured a major commission from the Trustees of the Melbourne Public Library in 1869, to reproduce 40 of his earlier watercolours of life on the Victorian goldfields.[4] At the same time as the Melbourne Public Library commission, Gill prepared a largely identical set of 53 watercolours under the title drawing of The Goldfields of Victoria During 1852–53. Comprising Fifty Sketches of Life and Character Primative (sic) Operations etc, etc., By S.T. Gill Melbourne, 1872.
By the end of the 1860s Gill was at the height of his success and appears to have indulged in the many temptations on offer in Melbourne and Sydney at this time. He frequented the resorts of the bohemians of the day such as Cafe de Paris, Charlie Wright's dancing-rooms, the bars of the Theatre Royal or Stutt's Buffet. Unfortunately Gill appears to have fallen into a dissolute life of drink and the demand for his work started to fall off. Over the latter part of his life he was often destitute and even bartered his sketches for drinks at his favourite watering holes like the Mitre Tavern.[5]
Gill's last commissions was given to him by the architect, Arthur Peck. On 27 October 1880, Gill was adding embellishments to the perspective view of a building. But according to the report in The Sun his hands shook to such an extent that the architect mistrusted his fitness for holding a brush and put him off until the following day. Gill wandered out into the Melbourne streets but clearly his health by this time was broken through drink and syphilis, and as he tried to climb the steps of the Melbourne Post Office he collapsed and died from an aneurism of the aorta."[4]
In 1880 he was buried in a pauper's grave. In 1913 a tombstone was erected over his remains at the suggestion of AW Greig, and thanks to a subscription raised by the Historical Society of Victoria. The stone bears the simple inscription: "Samuel Thomas Gill, The artist of the Goldfields. Born 1818. Died 1880".[5]
