Gracius Broinowski

{{short description|Australian ornithologist and artist}}

{{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Infobox artist

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| image = Gracius Broinowski.jpg

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1837|03|07|df=y}}

| birth_place = Walichnowy, Congress Poland, Russian Empire

| death_date = {{death date and age|1913|04|11|1837|03|07|df=y}}

| death_place = Mosman, New South Wales, Australia

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| works = {{unbulleted list|The Birds and Mammals of Australia |The Cockatoos and Nestors of Australia and New Zealand (1888) |The Birds of Australia (1891)}}

| spouse = Jane Smith

| relations = Leopold Broinowski (son)
Robert Broinowski (son)

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File:The birds of Australia (1890) (20375698852).jpg

Gracius Joseph Broinowski (7 March 1837 – 11 April 1913) was a Polish-Australian artist and ornithologist. He was born at the village of Walichnowy in central Poland, the son of a landowner and military officer.{{cite journal|last1=Hindwood|first1=K. A.|title=Gracius Joseph Broinowski: His Books and his Prospectuses|journal=Australian Zoologist|date=1966|volume=13|issue=4|pages=357–369|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/119448#page/417/mode/1up|accessdate=19 January 2016}} He studied languages, classics and art at Munich University. In about 1857 he joined the crew of a windjammer bound for Australia, leaving the ship at Portland, Victoria.Chisholm, A.H. (1969). Broinowski, Gracius Joseph (1837–1913). Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 3, p.239. Melbourne University Press.[http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030223b.htm] accessed 6 March 2009.

Broinowski spent the next few years doing various jobs, including working for a publisher in Melbourne, selling and promoting his paintings, and travelling widely in eastern Australia. He married Jane Smith, the daughter of a whaling captain, in about 1863. In 1880 he settled in Sydney, teaching painting, lecturing on art and holding exhibitions of his own work.

In the 1880s he began to publish illustrated works on Australian natural history. First came "The Birds and Mammals of Australia", followed in 1888 by "The Cockatoos and Nestors of Australia and New Zealand", and "The Birds of Australia" in 1891.

Broinowski died at Mosman in Sydney, survived by his wife, six sons and a daughter. His son Leopold became a significant political journalist in Tasmania, while another son Robert was clerk of the Australian Senate. A great grandson, Richard Broinowski was an Australian public servant and diplomat.