Contributing Artists

Contributing Artists

In days gone by only the best artists of their day had their work reproduced in print and the ravages of time have eliminated all but the best of these. Their work is a national treasure. Australian Classic Clip Art Deluxe makes this valuable resource available to all Australians and preserves it for future generations.

The following brief outlines describe some of the principal artists and publications featured in this amazing Australian fine-art/clip art collection.

SOUTER, David Henry

b. Aberdeen, 1862; arrived in Sydney 1886; d. Sydney, 1935.

‘David Souter was an illustrator, cartoonist and art editor. In 1880, he joined the staff of the Aberdeen magazine, Bon Accord, and after about one year moved to Natal where he worked for five years (1881-86) before moving to Sydney, where he worked for John Sands and William Brooks and Co, and drew cartoons for the Tribune, until 1892, when he joined the staff of the Sydney Bulletin.

During the succeeding several decades he became famous for his decorative art nouveau-style drawings of many women with cats. He founded the Brush Club within the Art Society of NSW, in 1887, was president of the NSW Society of Artists, 1901-02, and art editor of Sydney; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; Mitchell Library, Sydney.’ (Robb, G and Smith, E. Concise Dictionary of Australian Artists Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 1993)

‘David Souter had a wonderful eye for current fashion and decoration and was influenced by Beardsley and the Yellow Book. He also wrote for the Bulletin and was a judge of some of its literary contests. He was a short, stocky, hard headed Scot with few social graces, yet he followed fashion throughout the nineties, art nouveau, to art deco and the flapper age with sureness and confidence.’ (Rolfe, P. The Journalistic Javelin Wildcat Press, Sydney 1979)

LINDSAY, Ruby

b. Creswick Vic 1885 – London 1919, m. Will Dyson.

‘Sister of Daryl, Lionel, Norman and Percy Lindsay. Painter, illustrator. Aged 16 she lived with her brother Percy in Melbourne, shortened her name to ‘Lind’ and attended NGV School. She made black & white illustrations for Hawkett, the Bulletin and the Adelaide satirical magazine Gadfly, illustrated books and designed posters. She and Dyson married in 1909 and travelled with her brother Norman to London, remaining there and continuing to work on book illustration. In 1919 she visited Ireland with Daryl, and on return succumbed to the influenza epidemic, dying within a few days. While the greater part of her work is black & white illustration and recalls the family talent for drawing, she also painted in colour, including fan designs, executed with a delicate and sure touch.’ (Robb, G and Smith, E. Concise Dictionary of Australian Artists Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 1993)

‘Ruby Lindsay has been described as the best pen and ink woman artist Australia has produced… her fine illustrative work shows great sureness and delicacy of touch, displaying great promise that was never to be fulfilled.’ (Hordon House Catalogue Horden House, Sydney 1994)

WALL, Dorothy

b. Wellington 1894 d. Australia 1942. m. Andrew Delfosse Badgery.

‘Dorothy Wall, creator of the classic Blinky Bill stories about a mischievous young koala and his long suffering mother, spent her early childhood years at Port Chalmers and Christchurch, where she received her secondary education as a scholarship student at the Canterbury College School of Art and, later, at Wellington Technical College. Coming to Australia in 1914 she settled in Sydney, earning her living as a freelance artist, mainly by producing drawings of women’s fashions, domestic furnishings and appliances for newspaper advertisements and department store catalogues.’

‘During the 1920s Dorothy continued freelance illustrating… and worked on various newspapers, such as the Sun and Smith’s Weekly… In 1933 she left her husband and went to live in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. Here she began producing the books for which she became famous. Her first job was to illustrate Brooke Nicholls’ Jacko the Broadcasting Kookaburra, which gave her not only the inspiration for her own Blinky Bill stories but also the publishing format for them. Her son Peter, was a great source of ideas for Blinky Bill’s naughty escapades and cheeky language. She wrote and illustrated other books of her own during the 1930s… she died from pneumonia in January 1942.’ (McVitty, W. Authors and Illustrators of Australian Children’s Books Hodder & Stoughton, Sydney, 1989)

MAY, Phil (Philip William)

b. Leeds 1864 – London 1903, in Aust. 1886-88.

‘Worked for Sydney Bulletin. Cartoonist, draughtsman. No formal training, but worked on several English newspapers and magazines from 1878 onwards, also producing theatrical posters. In Australia he produced more than 800 cartoons and caricatures, helping to set high standards of pictorial journalism. Taught briefly at Katoomba College, NSW. After his return to England (1904) he continued occasional contributions to the Bulletin. Many of his works were published in separate volumes, among them Phil May in Australia.’ (Robb, G and Smith, E. Concise Dictionary of Australian Artists Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 1993)

‘At the age of 18 Phil May tried his luck in London. He used to speak of bitter hardship. “I lived like a street cat”, he recalled, “homeless, friendless, money-less, sleeping under a market car in Covent garden”. His idea of heaven was Sydney an hour away from London. “May’s work”, said Lionel Lindsay, “was a revelation to himself. May is very much a cartoonist’s cartoonist. His style appears simple making use of what a Bulletin cartoonist of another generation, Les Tanner, used to call…. significant white”. (Rolfe, P. The Journalistic Javelin Wildcat Press, Sydney 1979)

The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay

‘The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay; with an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson & Norfolk Island compiled from Authentic Papers, which have been obtained from the several Departments to which are added, The Journals of Lieuts. Shortland, Watts Ball & Capt. Marshall; with an Account of their New Discoveries embellished with fifty five Copper Plates, The Maps and Charts taken from Actual Surveys, & the Plans & Views drawn on the Spot, by Capt. Hunter, Lieuts. Shortland, Watts, Dawes, Bradley, Capt. Marshall &c. LONDON Printed for John Stockdale, Piccadilly. MDCCLXXXIX.’ (From the title page of an original 1789 version – Stockdale, J. The Voyage of Arthur Phillip to Botany Bay John Stockdale, Piccadilly 1789)

‘This was the first authentic and official account of the expedition to New South Wales and of the foundation of the settlement. It aroused world wide interest and was translated into several foreign languages…’ (Ferguson, John Alexander Bibliography of Australia National Library of Australia, Canberra 1941)

This amazing publication is full of delightful artists’ impressions of the first colony and the flora and fauna of Port Jackson. Its contribution to Australian Classic Clip Art Deluxe is very significant.

The ANZAC Book

From the Editor’s Note: ‘This book of Anzac was produced in the lines at Anzac on Gallipoli in the closing weeks of 1915. Practically every word in it was written and every line drawn beneath the shelter of a waterproof sheet or of a roof of sandbags – either in the trenches or, at most, well within the range of the oldest Turkish rifle, and under daily visitations from the smallest Turkish field-piece… At least one good soldier that we know of, who was preparing a contribution for these pages, met his death while the work was still unfinished…’

‘The Anzac book was to have been a New Year Magazine to help this little British Australasian fraternity in Turkey to while away the long winter in the trenches… A small committee was formed to father the magazine. A notice was circulated on November 14th calling for contributions from the whole population of Anzac. Any profit was to go to patriotic funds for the benefit of the Army Corps…’

‘It was realised by everyone that this production, which was to have been a mere pastime, had now become a hundred times more precious as a souvenir. Certainly no book has ever been produced under these conditions before…’

‘Contributors had to work with such materials as Anzac contained: iodine brushes, red and blue pencils, and such approach to white paper as could be produced from each battalion’s stationery.’