Intrepid was an unlikely term linked to women in the nineteenth century. Yet, Josephine’s fearless spirit not only led her around the world, but to the remote landscapes of outback Australia.
This series of paintings from the West Australian towns of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie were painted in the late 1890s when Josephine was visiting her brother, Edwin Parnell Muntz, who was a civil engineer on the goldfields.
According to the West Australian Goldfields Courier, Josephine’s visit made quite the impression:
‘Most visitors to Coolgardie are business men who are interested in the development of the fields. But fortunately in our hunt for gold we do not lose our interest in the more ennobling pursuits.
‘There is in Coolgardie at present, in the person of Miss Muntz, an artist whose work has recently been attracting well-merited attention in the other colonies.’1
