These images are from the State Library’s permanent exhibition, Paintings from the Collection, showcasing more than 300 of the 1200 paintings in its collection.

Two main genres predominate. Landscape studies, directly influenced by European models, which reflect the developing tastes and training of painters and their patrons as they gradually adjust to a new world. And portraits, initially of colonial officials, moving on to members of prominent families, emancipated convicts and finally literary and society figures.