Namatjira, Albert

Albert Namatjira, (born July 28, 1902, Hermannsburg, near Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia—died August 8, 1959, Alice Springs), Australian Aboriginal painter noted for his watercolour landscapes of desertlike central Australia.

A member of the Aranda people, Namatjira attended a Lutheran mission school, was taught European watercolour technique by a white artist, Rex Battarbee, from 1934 to 1936, and became a teacher at the Finke River Aboriginal Mission School. In 1936 he sold his first painting, and, in 1938, 41 of his watercolours were exhibited in Melbourne and were sold out, entailing a great demand for his work. He exhibited frequently in the next two decades and became well known in Australia and even overseas (one of his paintings was presented to Queen Elizabeth II in 1954).

Although he was granted Australian citizenship in 1957, his ethnic origin hindered his freedom. He was barred from moving into what he aspiringly called “a white man’s house” in a residential area of Alice Springs because he was of Aboriginal descent. In the last year of his life he was jailed for two months for supplying alcoholic liquor to a noncitizen Aboriginal person. After his release, he spent most of his final months at Hermannsburg, Australia’s largest mission station, continuing to paint, though in poor health.