![File 38: Tas [russell] Drysdale, Ca 1950 / Photographed By Max Dupain](https://tmcblog.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/c22043_0001_c-copy.jpg)
Born February 1912 in Bognor Regis, Sussex, England, Drysdale moved to Melbourne with his family in 1923.
He was educated at Geelong Grammar School, and in his last year there in 1929, it was discovered that Drysdale had a detached retina in his left eye.
His damaged eye resulted in him doing eye exercises five sessions a week, drawing perspective, three-dimensional form, the art of memory, and design.
Drysdale worked as a jackaroo in Victoria and on his uncle’s estate in Queensland. In 1932, after an eye operation, Drysdale’s surgeon Julian Smith showed Drysdale’s sketches to Daryl Lindsay.
The latter awakened him to the possibility of becoming an artist and suggested he take lessons with George Bell.
With the support of a fellow artist, Drysdale studied with artist George Bell from 1935 to 38. George advised Drysdale against mere illustrations and unreflective imitations advocating the study of “Form” in modern art.
While working at his father farm, “Boxwood Park”, in 1934, he created some artworks in the foothills near Albury, he also met his future wife Elizabeth (Bon) Stephen there.
She was also knowledgeable about modern art, having travelled through Europe with Lucy Swanton in 1930.
Lucy, becoming Drysdale’s art dealer in Melbourne, and later in Sydney.
Drysdale married Elizabeth in Melbourne in 1935.
That same year he re-enrolled at the Bell-Shore school, and in 1937 a friend and fellow artist from the Geelong Grammar School, Peter Purves Smith, arrived at the School, sharing Drysdale’s working space creating a friendly rivalry.
Career
After holding his first exhibition in Melbourne in 1938, Drysdale made several trips to Europe, including in 1938-39, studying in London at the Grosvenor School and the Grande Chaumière School in Paris.
On his return to Australia after his third trip in 1939, Drysdale was seen as an important emerging artist but was yet to find his own vision in art.
After being rejected for military service, he travelled to Albury to manage Boxwood Park (which was owned now by grazier, Bunny Reed) and then Sydney in 1940, which was instrumental in discovering his lifelong subject, the Australian outback.
Drysdale held his second exhibition in 1942 in Sydney, which was a huge success, and he became one of Australia’s leading Sydney modernists at the time, along with William Dobell, Elaine Haxton, and Donald Friend.
In 1944, Drysdale was sent to far western New South Wales by the Sydney Morning Herald “to illustrate the devastating effects of the drought” at the time.
First, creating a series of paintings of the devastation and later a series of artworks of the derelict gold-mining town of Hill End.
Drysdale won the Wynne Prize for his artwork painted in a town near Hill End, in Sofala, aptly named “Sofala (1947)”.
He also had a six-month journey with his son Timothy through the north of Australia.
In 1948 Drysdale was commissioned to paint an artwork for Leonard Voss Smith on behalf of Walter Hutchison.
Walter wanted an artwork of an Australian cricket match. He was shocked with what he received, not surprising considering the National Gallery of Australia describes the artwork, “The Cricketers”, as “one of the most original and haunting images in all Australian Art”.
He also sold an artwork in 1941, “Monday Morning (1938)”, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in an exhibition touring the United States “Art of Australia 1788-1941”.
Drysdale found his international success when he had an exhibition in London’s Leicester galleries in 1950 at the invitation of Sir Kenneth Clark, the Tate gallery buying “War Memorial (1950)” from this exhibition.
The exhibition was a significant milestone in Australian art history, convincing British critics that Australian art and artists had a distinctive style and vision of their own.
He exhibited regularly at the Leicester galleries, including in 1958, 1965 and 1972, also regularly at the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, exhibiting their nine times.
Later Life
Drysdale’s reputation continued to grow through the 1950 and 60s, exploring the Australian outback and its people, and in 1954 he was chosen to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale along with Sidney Nolan and William Dobell.
He was also the first Australian artist to be given a retrospective by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1960.
Drysdale co-wrote a book named “Journey Among Men” in 1962, with author Jock Marshall and was dedicated to their wives.
Tragedy struck Drysdale, though, in 1962 with the suicide of his son Timothy and his wife Elizabeth in 1963.
That same year Drysdale was appointed by H. C. Coombs, who led the Reserve Bank of Australia to be a part of a small committee supervising the banknote designs for the new Australian Decimal currency.
In 1964 he married Joyce Purves Smith, who was the widow of his friend and a librarian.
Drysdale was also a member of the board of trustees of the art gallery of New South Wales between 1962 and 1976 and was also on the Commonwealth art advisory board from 1963 to 1976.
He was knighted for his services to art in 1969 and given a Companion of the Order of Australian in 1980.
Three months after his exhibition of drawings in Melbourne at the Joseph Brown Gallery, Drysdale died of cancer in June 1981.
Hopefully, now you know more about Russell Drysdale, whose unique style in depicting aboriginal people, small towns and rural workers in harsh and dramatic environments, which contrasted with the dominant imagery of the time depicting Australian landscapes as a land of pastoral plenty.
Drysdale was at the forefront of showing the international community that Australian art was its own distinct style and feeling and not a mere copy of British painting.
Here are some excellent links with more information about Russell Drysdale and some in-depth biographies on him, including a post from the NGV with some photos that Russell had taken during his time in the outback and some sketches and paintings done during that time.
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Further Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Drysdale
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/drysdale-sir-george-russell-12439
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/drysdale-russell/