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Unique Portraits for the "Riksmuseet" (The Ethnographic section of the National Museum of Natural History)

The Ethnographic section of the National Museum of Natural History will one of these days as a gift receive two valuable and unique big oil paintings depicting two Australian negroes, They are painted by the Swedish artist Oskar Friström (his spelling of Oskar/Oscar varies from one source to another - you surely know best) who since many years has been a resident of Australia, masterly rendering the rapidly dying out Australian peoples from the stone age, their traits and racial marks. These paintings, which are of great artistic as well as scientific value, have been brought to Sweden by Dr. Mjöberg, who has recently managed to get a donator from Stockholm, the landed estate owner Erik Weinberg to buy them and free of charge hand them over to our ethnographic museum. As is well known Mr. Weinberg has already before as a financial patron supported one of Dr. Mjöberg´s expeditions.
The man depicted on one of these portraits was the last representative of the well known Moreton Island tribe, which in the past inhabited the areas where Brisbane is nowadays found. It was then strong and powerful, but the curse of civilization, above all liquor and deceases, quickly made their numbers decline, and at present there is not one single soul left. The man depicted was one of the last members of his tribe, still alive in 1911. The straits characteristic for his tribe, the sloping forehead and the bushy eyebrows have been well preserved, despite the degeneration (suffered by his people).
The woman "Gwar-I" or "catch-pennygin", as she was known, belonged to the Bribie tribe. During many years she was considered to be one of Brisbane¿s most widely known personalities a "street character" who gained a living with great skill catching coins with her mouth, coins that passersby flipped at her.
Oskar Friström, the man who with his brushes has immortalized the last representatives of these almost extinct tribes, thereby making an invaluable service to the science of ethnography, is counted as one of Australia¿s foremost painters of portraits, and a number of his canvasses have been acquired by the government and are now on display in the National Gallery.
It was actually in the last minute that Dr. Mjöberg acquired these paintings for Sweden. Just a few days later two representatives from the National Museum of Queensland turned up trying to acquire them for their government.
HWq rough translation 2010-12-08 [Dagen 1914-06-18]