"Face Value" takes a revolutionary new approach to art history, exposing complex networks of colonial artists and revealing important lost paintings of Richard Noble.

This is a Dickensian tale of humble beginnings, great expectations, and migration to the ends of the earth, where instant success in Australia gave way rapidly to personal tragedy and ignominious decline. The brutal struggle between painting and photography reduced many artists to penury. Gentleman painters were no match for the ruthless new entrepreneurs of the camera.

Failed portrait painter...