An apparently unrecorded carte de visite portrait photograph of the explorer John McDouall Stuart (1815-1866)

Adelaide: Townsend Duryea, 1866. Adelaide, Townsend Duryea, [printed circa 1866; original negative circa 1863]. An albumen paper photograph (90 × 59 mm), mounted on the original card (102 × 62 mm) with 'T. Duryea, Photographer to His Excellency, 66 King William St., Adelaide' printed on the verso under the Vice-Regal Coat of Arms. 'Townsend Duryea began making cartes de visite in late 1862 or early 1863, and was advertising his "new" style of carte in May 1863' (Bob Noye, AGSA website). The portrait, taken in Duryea's Adelaide studio, shows Stuart after his epic crossing of the continent of Australia: he is visibly depleted - emaciated even - with his injured hand positioned awkwardly in his lap. The accident that caused this permanent injury occurred on 25 October 1861, the day the main party of the successful sixth expedition departed Adelaide. Stuart later described it in a letter to Charles Sturt: 'the accident I received from one of the horses being in a state of strangulation and endeavoured to release him, reared up, struck me in the temple, knocked me senseless and springing again with his hind feet on my right hand, has disabled me for life' (Ian Mudie: 'The Heroic Journey of John McDouall Stuart', 1968, page 171). It is a most evocative image of the great explorer towards the end of his life.

The negative number 18592/3 is inscribed in ink on the verso, below Duryea's imprint. This particular imprint dates to around 1866 (see Noye), and the negative number is consistent with this date. Noye notes that 'A carte with a number belonging to a much earlier number range would be a reprint from an old negative held in storage'; this suggests that this photograph is not printed from the original negative (perhaps lost, damaged or destroyed). This further suggests that this photograph is printed from a negative produced by rephotographing an existing print of the portrait of Stuart taken earlier by Duryea. This would explain why Stuart has what appears to be his left hand in his lap: the image is printed in reverse.

It was likely produced after news of the explorer's death in London on 5 June 1866 had reached Adelaide. A small item of local news ('Mr T. Duryea's Studio') in the 'South Australian Register' on 23 November 1866 lends weight to this possibility: 'A visitor to Adelaide may spend a very pleasant and profitable half-hour in Mr Duryea's photographic studio, where a number of elegant photographs in every style of art are displayed.... Mr. Duryea also exhibits some superior examples of photographs worked up in water-colours, which are soft, and some of them exquisitely finished. Amongst these there is a fine portrait of the late J.M. Stuart, the explorer'. This carte de visite is clearly not that exhibition piece, but it is most definitely a fine portrait.