Charles Doudiet

Charles Alphonse Doudiet (1832 - June 13, 1913) was a Canadian artist and digger present at the Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, Victoria (Australia), in 1854. His sketchbook, discovered by his descendants in 1996, has provided contemporary images of events connected to the Eureka Stockade, that were important for the authentication of the original Eureka Flag.

Charles Doudiet was born in Geneva, Switzerland.[1] In 1844, at the age of twelve, Doudiet migrated from Switzerland to Canada East. His father, Reverend Jacques-Frederic Doudiet, worked with the French Canadian Missionary Society, a job that required much travelling, which Jacques-Frederic Doudiet documented in a series of sketchbooks.

When 20-year-old Charles Doudiet left his home in Belle Riviere near Montreal, he carried a sketchbook like his father, to document his travels. By riverboat, train, then the clipper Magnolia, Doudiet travelled to Melbourne, attracted by the Victorian Gold Rush.

On the diggings at Ballarat, Doudiet continued to document events, including the burning of Bentley's Pub on 17 October 1854.

Bakery Hill on December 1, 1854: Swearing Allegiance to the "Southern Cross"

Swearing Allegiance to the "Southern Cross" is an important historical work because it documents the meeting on Bakery Hill on 1 December 1854. Prior to the discovery of the sketchbook, there was no certain proof that the flag held by the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery was the original flag, as there were several different southern cross flag designs used on the gold fields at that time.

Eureka Slaughter shows the troops lined up attacking the stockade on 3 December 1854. Accompanying the sketch is a descriptive passage with the footnote: "Joyce, Penny and Fletcher along with myself carried Ross to the Star where he died in great pain at about 2am on the 5th". This refers to fellow Canadian Captain Henry Ross, whom many believe to be the Eureka Flag's designer, who was carried to the Star Hotel after he was mortally wounded in the battle at dawn on 3 December 1854.

Doudiet's Melbourne sketchbook ends in 1855, and soon after, Doudiet returned to Canada and married in March 1857. After several years, he studied theology at Queen's College, Kingston, Ontario, and was ordained as a minister in Montreal in 1869. He served several congregations before dying in Hollowell, Massachusetts, on June 13, 1913.

After descendants found Doudiet's sketchbook in an attic in 1996, it was put up for sale by auction at Christie's. Money was raised by the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery who purchased the sketchbook to add to the historical collection connected to Ballarat and the Eureka Stockade.

In January 2012 an article in The Age newspaper discusses a theory that the work Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross is a forgery, although the writer concluded I don't for a minute believe that Doudiet's watercolours are fake, ....[2]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Mountford, Ben. "Doudiet, Charles Alphonse (1832 - 1913)". Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Cultural Heritage Unit, The University of Melbourne, (2010). Retrieved 2010-03-31.
  2. ↑ Bailey, John (8 January 2012), "Flagging the truth", The Age, Melbourne, retrieved 2012-01-24

References

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