George Russell Drysdale was born in Bognor Regis, England on the 7th of February 1912 and died on the 29th of June 1981 in Sydney’s Westmead Hospital. Drysdale traveled to and from Australia numerous times over a fourteen year period finally settling as a border at Geelong Grammar school in 1923. The majority of c

“Lindsay was interested enough to...ask me whether I had ever thought about taking up painting as a career. Well, it had certainly never occurred to me, but I liked Lindsay because he had had the same sort of life that I had led... He had been a jackeroo and a station manager and we could talk about horses and sheep...really the only thing I had in my own world. I thought about this. I thought I might try art and he introduced me to George Bell.” 1

In February of 1934 Drysdale returned to Australia with his new strengthened appreciation for art and the influence it can have on people. Drysdale settled down and married to Elizabeth ‘Bon’ Stephen, finally focusing all his creative skill towards his art. At his first exhibition Drysdale was criticized to be an artist who had not yet found his own style however given age and talent was sure to rival the likes of Streeton and Roberts. Drysdale then returned to Europe to further his studies and when he finally returned to Australia once again was regarded as one of the most talented Australian artists of his time.

of his closest Australian counterparts, Donald Friend, at this particular time, sometimes painting the same neo-romantic subjects and with the same regard for traditional ways of drawing and painting.

After recovering from eye treatment in a Melbourne hospital, Drysdale begun to draw in pen and ink and his doctor Julian Smith, an amateur photographer, handed his pieces to Daryl Lindsay, a known artist and later director of the National Gallery of Victoria. Lindsay proved to be a great factor in Drysdale’s life, able to connect with him because of similar backgrounds and connections with country life.

After meeting with the artist George Bell, Drysdale’s life took a major turn. In the late forties bell had rejected academicism for modernism. In 1932, Drysdale attended the newly opened Shore-Bell School for about two months. There he was introduced to reproductions of modern art by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Roualt and Dufy. Bell emphasized the importance of form, and drawing from life. As a teacher he imposed no style but offered firm guidance to his students.

Some topics in this essay:
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