ID: 700001844 Page link: http://vocab.getty.edu/page/cona/700001844	Record Type: Movable Work
Images: 1

The emigrants (oil painting (visual work); William Allsworth (British artist, ca. 1811- 1861/1866); 1844; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Wellington, Welling...; registration number: 1992-0022-1)

Note: This work by the English artist William Allsworth became known as the definitive depiction of nineteenth-century Scottish emigration to New Zealand thanks largely to its publication as a lithograph by Day Haghe in London around 1855. It shows a prosperous Scottish family in a Highland landscape, surrounded by their worldly goods — piles of luggage, animals, cases of trees and plants, and farm implements. Clearly, they are emigrating, with everything needed for successful colonial life.Their destination is signalled by the ship anchored just offshore. Close inspection reveals that it is flying the 1835 New Zealand flag. The family’s Scottishness is loudly proclaimed by the wearing of tartan: they are the Mackays, gathered near their ancestral home in Sutherlandshire, and it is their chartered ship, the Slains Castle, that rides at anchor in the background.But not everything in the painting is as it seems. A family named Mackay did arrive at Nelson on the Slains Castle in January 1845, but recent research by descendants has revealed that their real name was Mackie, and that their father, James, was not the brother of a Sutherlandshire laird he claimed to be, but the second son of a merchant in Aberdeen. Furthermore, he had spent most of his life in London, where he worked as a banker. He married an English woman and the children were all London born. And the Slains Castle was not chartered by the family — nor did it sail from Scotland. It was a New Zealand Company ship that sailed from Plymouth in October 1844 with several other passengers besides the ‘Mackays’.It is possible that James Mackie embellished his family history because emigration to such a distant destination as New Zealand gave him the opportunity to make a new start with a fabricated noble identity. Commissioning Allsworth to construct an appropriate image - he had exhibited ten paintings at the Royal Academy, London, between 1836 and 1856, all but one of which appear to have been portraits - might have been a key step in establishing the family’s new legend.

Titles:

The emigrants (preferred,C,U,RP,English,U,U)

Catalog Level: item

Work Types:

oil painting (visual work) [300033799] (preferred)

..... (Objects Facet, Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name), Visual Works (hierarchy name), visual works (works), <visual works by material or technique>, paintings (visual works), <paintings by material or technique>)

painting (visual work) [300033618]

..... (Objects Facet, Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name), Visual Works (hierarchy name), visual works (works), <visual works by material or technique>)

Classifications:

paintings (preferred)

Creation Date: 1844

Creator Display:

William Allsworth (British artist, ca. 1811- 1861/1866) [preferred,VP]

painter Allsworth, William (British painter, c. 1811-1861/1866) [500354680]

Locations:

Current: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand) [500311561] Corporate Bodies (Corp. Body)

Repository Numbers: registration number: 1992-0022-1

Credit Line: Purchased 1992 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds

Display Materials: oil on canvas

	oil paint (paint) [300015050]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by function>, coating (material), <coating by form>, paint (coating), <paint by composition or origin>)

	canvas (textile material) [300014078]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by form>, <materials by physical form>, <fiber and fiber by product>, <fiber by product>, textile materials, <textile materials by process or technique>)

Dimensions: Image: 890 x 1210 mm; Frame: 1035 x 1350 x 35 mm

General Subject:

human figures (preferred)

landscapes

Specific Subjects:

	emigration [300055406]
	.....(Activities Facet, Functions (hierarchy name), functions (activities), <functions by general context>, migration (function)) (AAT)

	family (kinship group) [300055474]
	.....(Agents Facet, People (hierarchy name), people (agents), groups of people, social groups, kinship groups) (AAT)

	natural landscape [300132294]
	.....(Objects Facet, Built Environment (hierarchy name), Settlements and Landscapes (hierarchy name), landscapes (environments)) (AAT)

	coastal environment [300225203]
	.....(Objects Facet, Object Groupings and Systems (hierarchy name), object groupings, <object groupings by specific context>, environments (object groupings)) (AAT)

	Scottish [300111212]
	.....(Styles and Periods Facet, Styles and Periods (hierarchy name), <styles| periods| and cultures by region>, European, European regions, British (modern)) (AAT)

List/Hierarchical Position:

..... Movable Works

.......... Movable Works by class: drawings, paintings, prints, other two-dimensional media

Sources and Contributors:
The emigrants	........ [VP,TePapa]
	........ Te Papa online (2000-) http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/ObjectDetails.aspx?oid=39550; accessed 22 August 2012
	........ Te Papa spreadsheet (2012)

Subject: ....... [VP,TePapa]

....................... Te Papa online (2000-) Accessed 22 August 2012

....................... Te Papa spreadsheet (2012)

Note:
English	..... [VP]
	..... Te Papa online (2000-) http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/ObjectDetails.aspx?oid=39550; accessed 22 August 2012