Knut Bull

Knut Bull, 'Mount Wellington, Tasmania', 1856 (ALMFA, SLT)

Knut (Knud) Geelmeyden Bull (1811–89), painter, was born in Norway, and studied art in Copenhagen and with JC Dahl in Dresden. Convicted of forging a £100 note during a visit to London in 1845, he was transported for fourteen years. In 1847 he was transferred from Norfolk Island to Tasmania and by 1850 was teaching in Bagdad. Despite previously exemplary behaviour, he absconded, with inexpertly forged papers, to Melbourne, where he was recognised, arrested and returned. He received his ticket-of-leave and married in 1852, and his most productive period of work followed, until he moved to New South Wales in 1856. Although also a portraitist and photographer, he is most remembered for his views of Hobart Town. He is best represented in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Jim Heys