Adolph Gustav Plate

Savu Savu Bay, Fiji Islands’, 1890
oil on wood
8.8 x 13.5 cm (image); 19 x 23.7 cm (frame)
signed (on reverse)

SOLD

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Provenance
The Estate of Jocelyn Plate

Exhibited
A Restless Life: Journeys through the Pacific, Asia and Australasia 1887-1913, Adolph Gustav Plate, Lewers Bequest and Penrith Regional Art Gallery, Sydney, 18 October 1996 - 26 January 1997, cat. 1

Literature
Cassi Plate (ed.), A Restless Life: Journeys through the Pacific, Asia and Australasia 1887-1913, Adolph Gustav Plate, Lewers Bequest and Penrith Regional Art Gallery, 1996, cat. details p. 28


Adolph Gustav Plate (1874-1914) was Carl Plate's father

Adolph Gustav Plate was an artist, travel writer, publisher and editor who traversed the Pacific and documented in his paintings and writings the Indigenous cultures and peoples of Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Australia.

Born in Germany in 1874, Plate became a trainee midshipman with the German Merchant Navy from 1888-1900. He sailed and painted through the Pacific and held exhibitions of his paintings in Fiji in 1891 and 1892. From 1900-04, Plate settled in Sydney, from where he continued to travel, paint and write through the Pacific, Asia and Europe.

Plate moved to Western Australia in 1908 before his death in Sydney in 1914. Plate was survived by three children, including the artists Carl Plate and Margo Lewers (née Plate). 

In 1996-97, the Lewers Bequest and Penrith Regional Art Gallery, Emu Plains, held A Restless Life: Journeys through the Pacific, Asia and Australasia 1887 - 1913, a survey of seventy-seven paintings and works on paper. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue edited by the artist's granddaughter, Cassi Plate.

  • Savu Savu Bay, Fiji Islands’


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Adolph Gustave Plate was an artist, travel writer, publisher and editor who traversed the Pacific and documented in his paintings and writings the Indigenous cultures and peoples of Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Australia. Born in Germany in 1874, Plate became a trainee midshipman with the German Merchant Navy from 1888-1900. He sailed and painted through the Pacific and held exhibitions of his paintings in Fiji in 1891 and 1892. From 1900-04, Plate settled in Sydney, from where he continued to travel, paint and write through the Pacific, Asia and Europe. Plate moved to Western Australia in 1908 before his death in Sydney in 1914. Plate was survived by three children, including the artists Carl Plate and Margo Lewers (née Plate). 

In 1996-97, the Lewers Bequest and Penrith Regional Art Gallery, Emu Plains, held A Restless Life: Journeys through the Pacific, Asia and Australasia 1887 - 1913, a survey of seventy-seven paintings and works on paper. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue edited by the artist's granddaughter, Cassi Plate.