Recent from talks
Ian Fairweather
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Ian Fairweather
Ian Fairweather (29 September 1891 – 20 May 1974) was a Scottish painter resident in Australia for much of his life. He combined Western and Asian influences in his work.
Ian Fairweather was born in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, Scotland in 1891. His parents returned to India when he was a baby, leaving him in the care of a great-aunt, and he did not see them again until he was 10 years old. He received early schooling at Victoria College in Jersey, in London, and in Champéry, Switzerland, before attending officer training school at Belfast where his rank was second lieutenant.
He was captured by the Germans in the first days of World War I in France at the Battle of Mons and spent the next four years in prisoner-of-war camps. While captured, he was permitted to study drawing, Chinese and Japanese. He was responsible for the illustrations in many POW magazines. His four-year incarceration included lengthy periods of solitary confinement as a result of repeated escape attempts.
After the war he studied art in the Netherlands, London and Munich. In 1918, he studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and then privately with Johan Hendrik van Mastenbroek. In 1921 he attended the School of Oriental Studies studying Japanese and between 1920 and 1924 he attended the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London. From this time on he began a wandering existence travelling to Canada, Shanghai, Bali, Colombo and Australia. Wherever he was, he painted, and mailed paintings to galleries, initially with little commercial success. In 1934, in Melbourne, he joined artists Lina Bryans, Ada Plante, William (Jock) Frater, Ambrose Hallen and others at Darebin Bridge House, a converted coach-house at Darebin owned by Bryans. He began a mural for the Menzies Hotel at this time.
Later that year he left Australia via Sydney and Brisbane for the Philippines. He then travelled to many places including Shanghai, Peking, Manila, Brisbane, Singapore and Calcutta. He served with the British Army, 5th Mahratta Light Infantry with the rank of captain in India from 1941 to 1943. Discharged from the army in 1943, he travelled to Australia and visited Melbourne Cairns, Cooktown, and Brisbane before eventually settling into a studio back at Darebin in Melbourne.
By this time his paintings had become widely known and had already been acquired by the Contemporary Art Society, London, the Tate and Leicester City Gallery.
After moving back to Cairns and Townsville, in 1951 he moved to Darwin where, after living in abandoned trucks and boats, and probably suffering from depression, he built a raft and embarked on a solo voyage into the open sea. Thought by the Australians to have perished after searches were unsuccessful, he survived and beached on Rote Island in Indonesia. Discovered by Indonesian authorities, he was imprisoned and eventually deported. He travelled to London via Singapore and returned to Brisbane in 1953, aged 62. He built a hut on Bribie Island in Queensland, where he lived for the rest of his life except for visits to India and London during the 1960s.
One of his paintings, Monastery, acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, was described by critics at the time as a masterpiece. It was singled out by fellow Australian artist James Gleeson, who said, "He has fashioned an extraordinarily fascinating hybrid from the pictorial traditions of Europe and the calligraphy of China..." (The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 June 1961)
Hub AI
Ian Fairweather AI simulator
(@Ian Fairweather_simulator)
Ian Fairweather
Ian Fairweather (29 September 1891 – 20 May 1974) was a Scottish painter resident in Australia for much of his life. He combined Western and Asian influences in his work.
Ian Fairweather was born in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, Scotland in 1891. His parents returned to India when he was a baby, leaving him in the care of a great-aunt, and he did not see them again until he was 10 years old. He received early schooling at Victoria College in Jersey, in London, and in Champéry, Switzerland, before attending officer training school at Belfast where his rank was second lieutenant.
He was captured by the Germans in the first days of World War I in France at the Battle of Mons and spent the next four years in prisoner-of-war camps. While captured, he was permitted to study drawing, Chinese and Japanese. He was responsible for the illustrations in many POW magazines. His four-year incarceration included lengthy periods of solitary confinement as a result of repeated escape attempts.
After the war he studied art in the Netherlands, London and Munich. In 1918, he studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and then privately with Johan Hendrik van Mastenbroek. In 1921 he attended the School of Oriental Studies studying Japanese and between 1920 and 1924 he attended the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London. From this time on he began a wandering existence travelling to Canada, Shanghai, Bali, Colombo and Australia. Wherever he was, he painted, and mailed paintings to galleries, initially with little commercial success. In 1934, in Melbourne, he joined artists Lina Bryans, Ada Plante, William (Jock) Frater, Ambrose Hallen and others at Darebin Bridge House, a converted coach-house at Darebin owned by Bryans. He began a mural for the Menzies Hotel at this time.
Later that year he left Australia via Sydney and Brisbane for the Philippines. He then travelled to many places including Shanghai, Peking, Manila, Brisbane, Singapore and Calcutta. He served with the British Army, 5th Mahratta Light Infantry with the rank of captain in India from 1941 to 1943. Discharged from the army in 1943, he travelled to Australia and visited Melbourne Cairns, Cooktown, and Brisbane before eventually settling into a studio back at Darebin in Melbourne.
By this time his paintings had become widely known and had already been acquired by the Contemporary Art Society, London, the Tate and Leicester City Gallery.
After moving back to Cairns and Townsville, in 1951 he moved to Darwin where, after living in abandoned trucks and boats, and probably suffering from depression, he built a raft and embarked on a solo voyage into the open sea. Thought by the Australians to have perished after searches were unsuccessful, he survived and beached on Rote Island in Indonesia. Discovered by Indonesian authorities, he was imprisoned and eventually deported. He travelled to London via Singapore and returned to Brisbane in 1953, aged 62. He built a hut on Bribie Island in Queensland, where he lived for the rest of his life except for visits to India and London during the 1960s.
One of his paintings, Monastery, acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, was described by critics at the time as a masterpiece. It was singled out by fellow Australian artist James Gleeson, who said, "He has fashioned an extraordinarily fascinating hybrid from the pictorial traditions of Europe and the calligraphy of China..." (The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 June 1961)
Recent media