In black and white: W.C. Piguenit's mono­chrome paintings and the imaging of the Tasmanian wilderness in the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia

Holmes, Jonathan 2008. In black and white: W.C. Piguenit’s mono­ chrome paintings and the imaging of the Tasmanian wilderness in the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia. Kanunnah 3: 1–12. ISSN1832­536X. William Charles Piguenit (1836–1914) created a number of monochrome paintings of the wilderness areas in Tasmania during the late 1880s. They are an isolated group of paintings in this medium in Piguenit’s oeuvre and this paper argues that many were commissioned for engravings reproduced in the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia (1886–1888). It is suggested that the paintings were produced in black and white for transfer to photo­sensitised woodblocks. It is further argued that this approach enabled engravers to more faithfully represent the tonal values of the originals. Until now these paintings were thought to have been created in 1891, but it seems likely that most of the monochrome paintings by Piguenit in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery were painted sometime in 1887.