In March 2025, Mount Barker NTSA Branch members Bob and Robyn Upton donated an original nineteenth-century oil portrait of Sir Samuel Davenport to the Burnside NTSA Branch. Bob and Robyn’s generous donation means that the portrait can now be viewed at Beaumont House, Sir Samuel’s home of many years, which is under the guardianship of the Burnside Branch. The portrait was painted approximately 150 years ago by prominent Adelaide artist John Alfred Upton, and has been in the possession of the Upton family ever since. Bob Upton is the painter’s great-nephew. As a result of Bob and Robyn’s donation the painting is nowon display to the public for the first time.
The Subject: Samuel Davenport (1818-1906)
Samuel Davenport founded the suburb of Beaumont as a purpose-built village in 1848. The first Anglican Bishop of Adelaide, Augustus Short, purchased a large allotment on a lofty part of Davenport’s estate. There he constructed “Claremont,” as Beaumont House was first known, where his family resided until the completion of Bishop’s Court in North Adelaide in 1856. Subsequently Davenport and his wife Margaret bought back the land and its new house, and moved in themselves. Davenport resided there until his death in 1906. The property changed hands several times before being donated to the National Trust in 1969 (see https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/places/beaumont-house/).
In addition to his status as a landowner in the Beaumont and Macclesfield areas, Samuel Davenport had a varied career as a politician (serving on the Legislative Council), a banker, an advocate for local agricultural businesses, and as the founder of the olive oil industry in South Australia. He established an olive plantation at Beaumont House, and cultivated mulberry trees for silk worms. He even experimented with fragrant flowers in his extensive garden for perfumery. He was knighted in 1884. The South Australian Assembly seat of Davenport was later named after him.
The Artist: John Alfred Upton (1847-?)
John Alfred Upton was a small child when his family emigrated from England to Melbourne in 1851. He soon showed an aptitude for art and a determination to make it his career. While studying at the Royal Melbourne Technical College he worked as a colourist with a photographic firm, which led to a position in South Australia with the Adelaide Photographic Company as an “artist in watercolours” when he was eighteen years of age. He also attended painting classes in Adelaide, where he showed outstanding promise. In 1875 philanthropist Robert Barr Smith paid for his passage to Europe, to study at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (anticipating Barr Smith’s patronage – along with others – of the young Hans Heysen on a similar study tour in 1899). Upton rewarded his sponsor’s faith by winning several of the Academy’s medals for proficiency and excellence, against intense competition. After six years of study, and having exhibited at both the London Royal Academy and the Paris Salon, he returned to Adelaide in 1881.
His status was now such that he was offered the prestigious post of master of Adelaide’s School of Design, but owing to his health having been “impaired by unusual study” he was unable to take up the appointment. This failure of his health was the first indication of a physical and mental frailty that may ultimately have contributed to his premature demise, but he continued painting, and his reputation was undiminished. In 1883 the Board of the South Australian Institute paid the impressive sum of £315 for his work “A Peasant Girl at the Shrine” (painted when he was in Germany), for the Art Gallery of South Australia. A devout Catholic, this was one of several religiously-themed works that he produced, including altar pieces for the St Anthony of Padua Church in Manoora and for the original St Rose’s Church in Kapunda (demolished 1938). He also donated several works to Catholic charities.
Upton was, however, best known in Adelaide for his portraiture, which had a reputation for being extraordinarily true-to-life. Presumably for commercial reasons, he specialised in portraits of prominent public men around town, including politicians, churchmen and business identities. It is not clear whether any of these portraits were painted from life, but he rendered at least some of his subjects posthumously with the aid of photographs, reflecting the interplay between painting, photography and portraiture that had characterised his early career.
In 1886 Upton expressed a desire to return to Germany, and apparently did so, as he dropped out of view in Adelaide shortly thereafter. He died in Munich sometime before 1894 in unknown circumstances, without achieving his fiftieth birthday.
If any reader is able to shed more light on J.A. Upton’s final years, our Branch would love to hear from you. Please contact us via our Info line.
