Thomas James Lempriere was born in Hamburg in 1796 and came to Van Diemen’s Land in 1822. He joined the Commissariat Department and remained in its employ until his death. Lempriere’s surviving diaries, held by the Library, record his Tasmanian life, including his artistic endeavours and other interests such as natural history and meteorology. 

Lempriere began painting relatively late in life, portraiture being foremost among several genres he undertook. The subject of this portrait, George William Evans, was an important surveyor, who was sent by Governor Macquarie in 1813 to confirm and extend the route across the Blue Mountains previously established by Blaxland Lawson and Wentworth.

Lempriere’s daughter Lucy Parris became Evans’ second wife, marrying him in 1826.