John Longstaff

Sir John Campbell Longstaff ( born March 10, 1861 in Clunes, Victoria, † October 1, 1941 in Melbourne) was an Australian painter. He received five times the Archibald Prize, the most prestigious award in the field of portrait painting in Australia, and also worked as a war artist.

Life

John Longstaff was the second son of Ralph Longstaff and Janet Campbell. He attended the National Gallery School in Melbourne and married 1887 Rosa Louisa Crocker, with whom he later had five children. Because of his work composed in the same year the painting Breaking the News he received a travel grant from the National Gallery of Victoria. He traveled among others to London and Paris, where he exhibited some of his works in the Salon de Paris. 1894 Campbell returned to his native Australia, from 1897 to 1900 he had a gallery where artists building Grosvenor Chambers. In 1901 he revisited London to exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts. During the First World War he was an official war artist with the Australian infantry, in this period that many senior military portraits. John Longstaff received numerous awards and honors, as he was inter alia President of the Victorian Artists Society and was awarded in 1928 as the first Australian artist knighted. Nina Murdoch published in 1948 under the title " Portrait in Youth" a biography of Sir John Longstaff.

Works by John Longstaff (selection)

Gippsland, in 1898, exhibited in the National Gallery of Victoria

Arrival of Burke, Wills and King, works to the expedition of Burke and Wills, 1907

Portrait of Banjo Paterson, 1935