William Buelow Gould

William Buelow Gould
William Buelow Gould
Born	William Holland 1801 Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Died	11 December 1853(1853-12-11) (aged 51–52) Hobart, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Australia
Nationality	English/Australian
Education	William Mulready, Rudolph Ackermann
Known for	Painting
Notable work	Sketchbook of fishes; Still life, fruit; Still life, flowers in a blue jug

William Buelow Gould (1801 – 11 December 1853) was an English and Van Diemonian (Tasmanian) painter. He was transported to Australia as a convict in 1827, after which he would become one of the most important early artists in the colony, despite never really separating himself from his life of crime.

Gould's life in Van Diemen's Land was the subject of the award winning historical fiction novel Gould's Book of Fish (2001), written by Richard Flanagan, centring on Gould's production of the Sketchbook of fishes. In April 2011 Gould's original Sketchbook of fishes was recognised as a document of world significance by UNESCO.

Gould was born as William Holland in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. While little is known of his early life, it is thought that he received artistic training under Irish painter William Mulready, R.A., in London, and German lithographer Rudolph Ackermann in The Strand, and that he worked in Spode's factory in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, as a painter of porcelain.

Gould evidently moved around England quite a bit, and on 7 November 1826 he was convicted in Northampton, East Midlands, of having by "force of arms stolen one coat", and was subsequently sentenced to "seven years beyond the seas", a phrase indicating transportation to the then British penal colony of Australia. While the sentence was for the fairly standard term of seven years, as with most convicts, Gould would never return to England. At the time of this conviction, Gould was married and had two children, and had also received a prior conviction for "stealing colours".