THOMAS BAINES
(British/South African 1822-1875)

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John Thomas Baines (known as Thomas Baines) was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, in 1820 to Mary Anne and John Baines, a master mariner. Thomas’ parents had a modest income which allowed his mother to tutor and provide him with a basic education, and he was further educated at Horatio Nelson's Classical and Commercial Academy and Mr Beloe's school at King's Lynn.  Thomas yearned for travel and adventure, and while at school was known to sketch with supplies purchased for him by his grandfather. At the age of fourteen he began a six-year apprenticeship with a local carriage builder William Carr, who specialised in ornamental painting and Heraldic coats of arms. 

In August of 1842, at the age of 21, Thomas Baines travelled from London to Table Bay aboard the schooner Olivia, arriving on November 23. He began his career in South Africa as a coach builder, but swiftly began to promote himself as a marine and portrait painter. He undertook a variety of positions, learning new skills essential to his success in Africa including learning to ride a horse. During this time he befriended Frederick Logier (1801-1867), the son of the eminent musician Bernard Logier, who would change the course of the artist’s career. Logier persuaded Baines to dedicate himself entirely to his artistic talents and commissioned a half dozen pictures of Cape Town circa 1846-47.

Baines set off into the African wilderness with a small group of pioneers, and upon reaching Grahamstown met a local merchant who taught him how to determine distances using observations and compass bearings.  He based himself in the Eastern Cape between 1848 and 1853 during which time he journeyed several times into the interior; beyond the Orange River in 1848, beyond the Kei River and over the Winterberg in 1848, and attempting to reach the Okavango Swamps in 1850. By 1851, Baines had drained his finances and determined that the quickest way to earn a living was through selling paintings from his travel sketches.  As he also understood the terrain and had sufficient imagination, he turned eyewitness accounts of conflicts between the British and the local Xhosa into illustrations.  When officers of the 74th Highlanders saw these works, they suggested he apply for the position of Artist to the Forces.  He was subsequently hired as South Africa’s first official war artist recording the Eighth Frontier War (1850-53). He was provided with rations including a horse, army kit and artist equipment for works on paper.  Befriending both officers and soldiers in the war zone as he accompanied them, he noted every incident in his journal, illustrating events and landscapes in his sketchbook.

Baines’ map of the Limpopo region was brought to London by an associate, Henry Hall, which led to Baines’ artistic abilities being recognised by the Illustrated London News who subsequently published many of his pictures of historical and military events.  His mother petitioned for Royal patronage for a series of lithographs which were produced in six parts of six plates each, titled “Scenery and Events in South Africa”.  He sought to make his art practice and exploration sustain each other financially but, out of funds, he returned to England arriving in London in September of 1853. He found work at the headquarters of the Royal Geographic Society consulting with the cartographer John Arrowsmith on a map of Africa.  Baines proposed an expedition to the Nile region of North Africa and requested a position on the planned exploration to the Benue River in Nigeria.  Instead, he was provided a position as artist and storekeeper on an expedition to northern Australia. He departed in March of 1855 arriving in Melbourne 69 days later.  In Sydney he met Augustus Charles Gregory with whom his brother Henry was organizing the expedition to Northwestern Australia. It was a difficult trip, with Thomas’ party being attacked by natives. Gregory named two land formations in recognition of Baines’ hard work during the expedition; the Baines River, a tributary of the Victoria River, and Mount Baines, situated between the Victoria and Wickham Rivers in Northern Australia.  In addition, there was a shoal named in his honour. 

In June 1857 Baines began the long journey home to England with numerous completed pictures and several folios of sketches, including a panoramic view of the Victoria River.  On board ship he continued to paint based on the sketches he had completed during his exploration. Upon his return in 1858 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, receiving a gold medal. The same year, 1858, he was invited to join the Livingstone Expedition to the Zambesi River to serve as artist, trader, storekeeper and to assist with topographical surveying and cartography.  He excelled in his tasks, but personality conflicts and disagreements forced Baines off the expedition prior to reaching Victoria Falls.

Back in Cape Town he renewed an acquaintance with fellow explorer James Chapman, whose wife was Catherine Roome, the daughter of Captain William Roome who hailed from Baines’ hometown of King’s Lynn. Baines was invited to join James Chapman’s planned expedition from Walvis Bay along the Zambezi.  The scope of the expedition was to explore the navigability of the Zambesi from Victoria Falls down to the delta, as they hoped to set up a series of trading posts from Walvis Bay toward Lake Ngami and then follow the Zambesi.  Baines was not paid for his part in the expedition but intended to sell an ambitious series of paintings of Victoria Falls. He built a set of collapsible boats to take on their journey and set off from Cape Town on March 20, 1861, and by July 1862 they had reached Victoria Falls. Baines was only the seventh European to have reached the Falls and the first to paint it. The party attempted to explore the Zambesi valley below the falls from September of 1862 to February 1863, but sickness and misfortune plagued the explorers, and they were forced to abandon the trip and return to Cape Town.  It was from this trip that Baines painted many of his most notable paintings, including Fully Striped Quagga. The full description of the course of events that led to this painting can the read in Baines’ own words in “Scene on the Logier River, Zambesi: The Full-Striped Quagga” published in Nature and Art Vol 1, published by Day and Son Limited London in 1866.

Both Baines and Chapmen kept journals in which they remarked on each other’s practices.   The expedition was published by both Thomas Baines in his book “Explorations in South-West Africa” published in 1864, and James Chapman’s “Travels in the Interior of South Africa” published in 1868. These dual publications provided a rare account of two different perspectives of the same exploration.  It was also the first African expedition to use both the new technology of photography as well as painting to capture events and scenery.

Thomas Baines was back in London by 1865, his fame established through the publication of his books and prints. He had realized the importance of the value and superior method of the new photographic medium over drawing and painting in scientific documentation, and while in London took photography lessons from James Lawrence, of the celebrated Lawrence Brothers. However, Lawrence returned to Scotland in November 1865 and Baines realized that he would need to finance his further explorations through his writing and publications. London did not suit him, and he continued to look for ways to return to Africa.  In late 1866 he was invited to take charge of an expedition to investigate a possible gold deposit discovery between the Limpopo and Zambesi Rivers. It was a difficult location to reach or mine and although the region showed traces of gold, the lack of financial assistance led to the failure of the project.  His health was poor and so he returned to Durban, South Africa to work on a map to the gold fields and paint the region.

In 1870 Baines was granted a mining concession from the Ndebele King, Lobengula, to explore for gold between the Gweru and Hunyani Rivers in what is now part of Zimbabwe. Baines visited the Injembe district of Natal to investigate gold deposits and attended King Cetshwayo’s coronation in 1873. During his time writing an account of his expeditions he fell ill and died in Durban on 8 May 1875. His map, data and illustrations of his time exploring the gold-producing regions of Africa were published posthumously in the 1877 book “The Gold Regions of South-Eastern Africa”. 

Thomas Baines produced a graphic record wherever he travelled, and is today best known for his detailed paintings and sketches which give unique insight into colonial life in Australia and southern Africa. An observant naturalist, his sketches and watercolours of weather conditions, plants, animals and insects are accurate enough to be valued by esteemed botanists, zoologists and anthropologists. His work can be found in private collections worldwide, however most of his sketches and artwork is found in institutions including the Royal Geographical Society, the National Maritime Museum, the National Library of Australia, the National Archives of Zimbabwe, and the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. Major retrospectives have been held globally, including most recently “Thomas Baines: Art, Exploration and Empire at the Lynn Museum”. There are several land formations named in his honour, including Baines River and Mount Baines in the Northern Territories, Australia, an Australian shoal, and the Thomas Baines Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Additionally, 8 species of the Baobab tree commonly named Adansoina are now known as ‘Baines Baobabs’.