The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.
The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.
Fanny Jane Marlay
c. 1841 an unknown artist
watercolour on ivory (frame: 7.5 cm x 6.3 cm, sight: 4.6 cm x 3.5 cm)
Fanny Jane Marlay (1819–1848) came to Sydney with her free-settler family around 1825. In 1838, she met John Lort Stokes (1812–1885), an explorer, naval officer and surveyor appointed to HMS Beagle, which was then engaged in a surveying voyage of the Australian coast. In the course of it, Stokes charted much of what is now the coast of the Northern Territory; gave Darwin its name (after his former shipmate, Charles Darwin); and surveyed the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Arafura Sea, the Torres Strait, the Western Australian coast, and Bass Strait. He and Fanny married in Sydney in January 1841. Later the same year, Stoke succeeded to the command of the Beagle. Their daughter was born in 1842. Fanny returned with Stokes to England in 1843 and died while en route to Sydney again in 1848. Back in England from 1851, Stokes was eventually promoted to admiral. He died at his home, Scotchwell, in Pembrokeshire, in June 1885, survived by his second wife, Louisa, whom he’d married in 1856, and by his daughter from his marriage to Fanny.
Purchased 2013
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.
A portrait of free-settler Fanny Jane Marlay by an unknown artist in 1841. Watercolour on ivory positioned in a mountboard cut into a stretched octagon shape and coloured a deep mustard yellow. Encased in a velvet-lined burgundy case with a clasp on the right side it measures 7.5 cm in height and 6.3 cm wide.
Fanny Jane fills the frame. Her pearly white skin contrasts with the blue of her garment and the dark brown background which enhances the creaminess of her complexion. The brush marks of the artist are evident with hatching and stippling of colours being used to create gradations in colour.
She wears a sapphire blue broad brim hat which creates a halo around her face. The hat is elaborately decorated in white feathers that spill over the hat, drooping down towards her face and left shoulder.
Her hair is styled in loose finger waves covering her forehead and ears and pulled back. Elegant gold earrings with peach-coloured stones dangle from beneath her hair. Her eyebrows are slightly arched over almond-shaped and heavy-lidded eyes which are the same blue as her hat. Her nose is strong and straight, her cheeks coloured with a peachy blush and her narrow lips curve up in a subtle smile. Her long neck is adorned with a thick coiled gold necklace decorated with a peach-coloured stone in the centre to match her earrings.
She wears a blue dress that complements her hat with a broad neckline that is edged in delicate translucent lace. The lace stands up, reaching towards her face, shorter at the front and becoming taller at the back with a triangular trimmed edge. This triangular edging is mirrored in the blue fabric of her dress, where the neckline is also trimmed in a row of blue triangles.
Audio description written and voiced by Alana Sivell, 2021
