Swedish-born photographer and portrait painter, Oscar Fristrom, painted this portrait of Catchpenny, an Aboriginal woman from Bribie Island who was a well-known figure around Brisbane. Fristrom painted a number of versions of Catchpenny’s portrait, the first in 1887 and up to 1916. [W. Ross Johnston, ‘Oscar Fristrom and his Aboriginal Paintings’, John Oxley Library SL Blogs.]

Some items, including ... Oscar Fristrom’s painting of ‘Catchpenny’ are all original artworks with aesthetic and artistic significance.

While the painting of ‘Catchpenny’ by Oscar Fristrom is not of a local Indigenous subject, it does indicate a prevailing mode of representing Indigenous people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

[Written by Roslyn Russell, 13 October 2019]

Portrait of Catchpenny by Oscar Friström, oil on board. Painting depicts a woman wearing a hat, holding a bag and walking stick, standing by the sea.