Knud Bull

Knud Geelmuyden Bull (10 September 1811 – 23 December 1889) was a Norwegian painter and counterfeiter. He studied as a painter, was convicted for printing false bank notes, and was deported from the United Kingdom to Australia during 1846. He lived in Australia the remainder of his life, becoming a significant artistic painter there.

Background Bull was born in Norway in Bergen, a son of pharmacist Johan Storm Bull and his wife Anna Dorothea Borse Geelmuyden. He was a brother of violinist Ole Bull and architect Georg Andreas Bull. He studied painting with J. C. Dahl in Dresden from 1833 to 1834.

Deportation to Australia While visiting Great Britain in 1845, Bull was caught for having prepared equipment for printing false bank notes. In a trial at the Central Criminal Court in London during December 1845 he was sentenced to fourteen years deportation to Australia. Bull also created historical paintings, such as The Wreck of the George III (1850) which is now displayed in the National Gallery of Australia at Canberra.

Personal life He married Mary Ann Bryen (1837–1879) in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1852. He died in December 1889 in Sydney, Australia. He had five sons who all became painters, except one who died as a 2-year old.