Russell Drysdale facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sir Russell Drysdale
|
|
|---|---|
Russell Drysdale with some canvases, taken by Australian photographer Max Dupain
|
|
| Born | 7 February 1912 |
| Died | 29 June 1981 (aged 69) |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Education | Geelong Grammar School |
| Known for | Painter |
|
Notable work
|
Moody's pub (1941) The Drover's Wife (1945) Sofala (1947) The cricketers (1948) West Wyalong (1949) |
| Awards | Wynne Prize 1947 (Sofala) |
Sir George Russell Drysdale AC (born February 7, 1912 – died June 29, 1981) was a famous Australian artist. People also called him Tass Drysdale. He won the important Wynne Prize for his painting Sofala in 1947. He also showed his art for Australia at a big international art show called the Venice Biennale in 1954. His art was inspired by abstract and surrealist styles. He created a new way of seeing the Australian landscape. This new vision was as important as the work of Tom Roberts.
Contents
Early Life and Artistic Journey
George Russell Drysdale was born in Bognor Regis, England. His family were farmers from Australia. They moved to Melbourne, Australia, in 1923. Drysdale went to Geelong Grammar School. He had poor eyesight his whole life. From age 17, he could barely see with his left eye. This was because of a problem called a detached retina. This problem later stopped him from joining the military.
Drysdale worked on his uncle's farm in Queensland. He also worked as a jackaroo (a trainee farm worker) in Victoria. In 1932, he met an artist named Daryl Lindsay. This meeting made him think about becoming an artist himself. With help from another artist, Drysdale studied art. He learned from the modern artist and teacher George Bell in Melbourne. This was from 1935 to 1938.
He also traveled to Europe several times. In 1938–39, he studied at the Grosvenor School in London. He also went to the Grande Chaumière in Paris. When he came back to Australia in 1939, people saw him as a promising new artist. But he had not yet found his own unique style.
In 1940, he moved from Melbourne to Albury, then to Sydney. This move helped him discover what he would paint for the rest of his life. He started painting the Australian outback and the people who lived there. Another artist, Peter Purves Smith, also helped him. Smith guided Drysdale towards his well-known style. This style used empty landscapes with a few figures under dark skies.
Becoming a Leading Artist in Sydney
Drysdale had his second solo art show in Sydney in 1942. His first show was in Melbourne in 1938. The Sydney show was a big success. It made him one of the top modern artists in Sydney. Other famous artists at that time included William Dobell and Donald Friend.
In 1944, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper sent him to western New South Wales. His job was to paint the effects of a terrible drought there. He painted a series of pictures about the drought. Later, he painted scenes from the old gold-mining town of Hill End. His fame grew throughout the 1940s.
His painting Sofala won the Wynne Prize in 1947. This prize is for landscape paintings. The painting showed the nearby town of Sofala. His 1948 painting, The cricketers, is very famous. The National Gallery of Australia calls it "one of the most original and haunting images in all Australian art."
International Recognition in London
In 1950, Drysdale had an exhibition in London. It was at the Leicester Galleries. Sir Kenneth Clark invited him to show his work there. This was a very important moment for Australian art. Before this, Australian art was often seen as less important than British art.
Drysdale's paintings changed this view. British art critics saw that Australian artists had their own special way of seeing things. They explored a landscape that was mysterious, poetic, and starkly beautiful. This exhibition helped Australian art become known around the world. Soon, artists like William Dobell, Sidney Nolan, and Arthur Boyd also became famous internationally.
Later Life and Achievements
Drysdale's fame continued to grow in the 1950s and 1960s. He kept exploring remote parts of Australia and painting its people. In 1954, he was chosen to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale. This was a major international art event. He shared this honor with Nolan and Dobell.
In 1960, the Art Gallery of New South Wales held a special show of his work. He was the first Australian artist to have such a show.
In 1962, he wrote a travel book called Journey Among Men. He wrote it with Jock Marshall. They dedicated the book to their wives.
In 1969, Drysdale was made a knight for his great contributions to art. In 1980, he received another high honor. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia. In his later years, he painted less often.
Drysdale passed away in Sydney on June 29, 1981, after an illness. His ashes were placed under a tree at St Paul's Anglican Church in Kincumber.
Personal Life and Influences
Russell Drysdale was married twice. He had a son named Tim and a daughter named Lynne. When Tim was 11, he acted in a film. The film was about the life of Eileen Joyce, a pianist from Tasmania. Tim played Eileen's brother. In 1964, Drysdale married Maisie Purves Smith. She was an old friend of his.
Drysdale was a good friend and role model to the composer Peter Sculthorpe. Sculthorpe admired how Drysdale would rework his ideas in new ways. Drysdale once said that he was like a Renaissance artist. He kept trying to paint the "perfect Madonna-and-Child." He felt the same way about his own art. He saw his whole body of work as one big, slowly developing piece. Sculthorpe dedicated some of his music to Russell Drysdale and to the memory of Bonnie Drysdale.
Drysdale's Unique Artistic Style
Art expert Ron Radford says that Drysdale changed Australian landscape art. He made it "redder" around the end of World War II. Radford describes Drysdale's art this way: "His dried up earth suggested that man had lost control of the land." He felt that nature had fought back and taken over. Drysdale's Australia was "hot, red, isolated, desolate and subtly threatening."
His painting The Drover's Wife shows a sense of emptiness. It is often thought of alongside Sidney Nolan's Carcass paintings. Drysdale's use of red shows a landscape that is "deeply, intrinsically inhospitable." It also shows the "utter alienation" of the people he paints in these landscapes.
Drysdale sometimes used color photographs to help him remember details for his paintings. An exhibition in 1987 at the NGV showed this. It revealed how he used photos and then changed them to create his unique style.
Christine Wallace suggests that Drysdale was "the visual poet of that passive, all-encompassing despair." This despair comes from endless heat and drought. But she also notes that Sidney Nolan helped show this view of Australia to the world.
Lou Klepac, an art writer, summed up Drysdale's work in 1983. He said that Drysdale found "permanent and moving images" in the everyday landscape. These images have become a common way of seeing modern Australia. Some people see loneliness and isolation in Drysdale's paintings. But for Drysdale, it was the opposite. He saw it as a freedom from the worries of the modern world.
In June 2017, one of Drysdale's last paintings was sold. It was called Grandma's Sunday Walk (1972). It sold for $2.97 million. This was one of the highest prices ever paid for an Australian artwork at auction.
See also
- Australian art
