Alexander James Webb b. 8 October 1813

  • Artist (Painter)
oil and watercolour painter. Migrated to Victoria about 1855 and settled in Geelong. His work consisted mainly of landscapes, most of which were done in the late 1860s and 1870s.

oil and watercolour painter, woodgrainer and house decorator, was born in London on 8 October 1813 to James Webb, a veterinarian, and his wife Mary, the second (but eldest surviving) son in a family of five boys and four girls. His grandson stated that when Alexander showed an early aptitude for drawing and painting his father sent him to Scotland to learn art from Lady Gordon Cummings. He lived in the vicinity of Glamis Castle and members of the Bowes-Lyon family are said to have spoken to him when he was out painting landscapes. A report in the Geelong Advertiser of 4 March 1869 stated that he also studied at the Edinburgh Royal Academy and his paintings certainly suggest some formal academic training.

In Scotland Webb met and married Jane Alves from Forres, Morayshire. The couple lived in Edinburgh for seven years before deciding to migrate to Victoria, arriving about 1855, possibly in the John Bell (family records identify the ship as the Iron Bell ). They lived in various parts of West Geelong before settling above the town in Ashford Cottage, Belmont, on the south side of the Barwon River. Unable to earn a living in Geelong as an artist, Webb became a woodgrainer and house decorator with the firm of Stringer’s in Ryrie Street. On occasion he turned his hand to producing banners for local temperance and religious societies. His grandson believed that, although a Presbyterian, Webb both drew the preliminary designs for the building and painted a fresco on the walls of the second St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church in Yarra Street (begun 1871 and long demolished).

Decorating the mansions of the squatters of the Western District may have provided Webb with the opportunity to produce landscape paintings, said to have been his 'great love’; he reputedly walked from Geelong to Lorne to paint the Erskine Falls. As far as can be ascertained, most of his paintings were done in the late 1860s and 1870s (when he was in his sixties), although he did exhibit three at the Geelong Mechanics Institute Exhibition in 1857: a view of Venice after Turner, a view of Lake Como and a Victorian view of Bellerine with Cape Otway in the distance. At the same time he displayed samples of his graining and gilding on glass.

Thirteen oil and watercolour paintings were hung in the 1869 Geelong Mechanics Institute Exhibition, six having been sent by Webb himself: a Madonna after Raphael and five colonial scenes. The landscapes were favourably reviewed in the Geelong Advertiser , with Sunny Shower—Yalla-y-Poora and views of Larra Station in 1844 and 1868 being singled out for special praise. Webb also showed View of Mount Elephant and Cape Otway Ranges , while A.S. Robertson lent five views of his property, “Gnarpurt”. Webb’s Madonna and Sunny Shower—Yalla-y-Poora reappeared in the 1869 Ballarat Mechanics Institute exhibition together with an oil painting of cattle and a landscape with sheep. In 1871 he displayed oil and watercolour paintings in Geelong shops and galleries; the following year he was represented in the Victorian Academy of Arts Exhibition.

As a member of the Academy, Webb sent four oil paintings to the NSW Agricultural Society’s exhibition at Sydney in 1873: a pair of views from the Ranges near Ararat (15 guineas each) and two views of the Lake District in England (7 guineas each). Squatters and Selectors and Loutitt Bay were shown with the academy in 1874. The latter had been awarded a medal when shown at Sydney in 1873, but this time the Age reviewer James Smith criticised it for being 'pre-Raphaelite in the extreme, and boldness and freedom have to give way to nice exactitude’.

Webb continued to paint and exhibit oil and watercolour views of Geelong and the Western District for the rest of the decade together with British works; Near Randolph’s Leap, on the Findhorn, Scotland was included with the paintings sent by the Victorian Academy of Arts to the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition. Late in life he became partly paralysed. He died in June 1892, aged seventy-nine, and was buried in Geelong Cemetery. Jane Webb lived on until August 1928, into her hundredth year. The Webbs had five boys and four girls.

Writers:
Wynd, Ian
Date written:
1992
Last updated:
2011