b
Creswick, Victoria, 23 Feb 1879; d
Sydney, NSW, 21 Nov 1969.
Australian draughtsman, painter and writer. Born into a family that
produced fine artists, his early skill in drawing and reading was
encouraged by relatives. He received his only formal training in
1897 at the art colony run by Walter Withers at "Charterisville" in
Heidelberg. In 1899 he moved to Sydney, married in 1900, and began a
lifelong association with the Bulletin. He was best known for
exquisite pen drawings whose dark areas were enlivened by minute
traces of white. In 1906 he began producing wash drawings; during
World War I he designed government posters, and after the war he
took up watercolour painting. From 1918 to 1938 he concentrated on
etchings, which were printed by his second wife, Rose Soady (b
c. 1885), whom he married in 1920. She collected the drawings
and proofs for his over two hundred published etchings, which are
now in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. In 1927 he founded the
Fanfrolico Press with his son Jack. His home at Springwood, NSW, is
now a gallery and museum.