Design and Art Australia Online

painter and illustrator, was one of several sons in an old Catholic family from Godington Manor, Oxfordshire. Like his brother George , he mostly dropped the 'de Tourcey’ in Australia. Arthur worked on the London Graphic and the Illustrated London News before coming to Sydney in 1879 (there is some speculation however that he may have arrived earlier) where he drew illustrations for the Sydney Mail , the Town and Country Journal e.g. 'The Child Murder Case in Sydney’ 11 March 1882, 456. He contributed to the Centennial Magazine e.g. (woman looking at a canvas being painted by a female artist) '“It’s just like him,” said Beatrice, standing and looking at it’ – an illustration to a story by Francis Adams, 'Thunderbolt, an Australian Romance’ May 1889, 712. In particular, he was staff artist on the Illustrated Sydney News e.g. he drew a capsized yacht, 14 February 1885, 20. He also drew for the Commonwealth , an annual of Australian art and literature 1 2 (1901-02). Moore (ii, p.111) states that his 'A Kangaroo Hunt’, reproduced in Le Monde Illustré , was the first Australian sketch to appear in a French journal.

Arthur Collingridge designed a fountain erected in Ryde to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1888 and is said to have also designed a life-size statue of St Joseph (for which George was the model) for the facade of St Joseph’s, Hunters Hill; though this is unconfirmed. His best-known painting is his large oil of the departure of the NSW contingent to the Sudan (now Australian War Memorial) for which another brother, Charles, was chaplain. He was a trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1900-1907.

Sydney International Exhibition 1879-80: “Mr A. Collingridge 'Ryde, on the Parramatta River’... require[s] considerable distance to see to advantage, for the colours are somewhat crude, and the skies very hard, especially in th[is] latter picture. Still there is evidence of careful painting about [it]” ( Sydney Mail 10 January 1880, 69).

Melbourne International Exhibition 1880: NSW Court – Class 1 – Oil Paintings – no.4 Collingridge, A. & G., Ryde, Parramatta River – 1.Manly Beach from Shell Bay; 2.Wattles; 3.Sunset, Ryde; 4.Kissing Point, Parramatta; Class 5 – Engravings and Lithographs – no.66 Collingridge, A. & G., Ryde, Parramatta River – Engravings of NSW and other scenery.

“Five oil paintings by Arthur Collingridge, an artist who is well known by the sketches of his which have been published in Le Monde Illustré and the Illustrated Sydney News , are shortly to be disposed of [by an art union]. The largest is a landscape 'Parramatta River and the Blue Mountains’ and next to it in size, and much superior to it in artistic merit, is a picture of 'Devils Pulpit, Fish River Caves’, where vast precipices and curious rock formations presenting sombre shades of olive green, russet brown, and gray, are shown under a sky whose lurid tints indicate an approaching storm. The other pictures are 'A Flower Piece’, 'Nature Morte’ and 'A View on the Lane Cove River’ and of these the second piece, where a dead bird is shown, is the most attractive. These pictures were shown at the Sydney International Exhibition and won a first extra prize” ( Sydney Morning Herald 6 July 1880, p.7).

Arthur and his brother George founded the [Royal] Art Society of NSW and showed work in its first exhibition held at the Garden Palace in 1880:

Mr A. Collingridge has sent in nine pictures: – No.10 'Making Herself at Home’; No.65 'Flowers’; No.83 'View on the Parramatta’; No.84 'Katie’s Creek, Lane Cove’; Nos.85, 88, 89 'Australian Birds’; No.86 'Leg of Mutton’; and No.87 'A Swim for Life’. The best of these is No.84, where one sees a reach of still water, pierced by reeds and flecked with waterlilies, embosomed among gentle wooded slopes and suffused with the pale yellow glow, which follows sunset. A few ships flit over the creek, and impart life to what would otherwise seem 'charmed stillness’. No.10 represents a pretty black and white kitten, coiled up in a gaudy bonnet and the little intruder looks very life-like. Her gaze is intelligent, the anatomy of the figure is perfect, and the rich softness of the fur is very well reproduced. No.83 was shown at the International Exhibition, and took a first prize there; but the water in it is not painted nearly so well as that in No.84. No.86 is a painting on marble, but the subject is scarcely worthy of the treatment and 87, an effective picture, might well be termed a la Whistler 'an arrangement in blue’, since deep blue is its pervading tint. Probably Mr Collingridge, mentally placing himself in the situation of the imperilled sailor, felt that blue was the only tint in which he could express the story. There is nothing in this artist’s other pictures to call for special mention ( Sydney Morning Herald 8 December 1880, 3).

“No.38 [sic, cf. Sydney Morning Herald 's number] 'Katie’s Creek, Lane Cove’, the work of Mr A. Collingridge, is remarkably natural, a clump of water plants in the foreground being especially good” ( Bulletin 1 January 1881, 2).

Exhibited at the second annual exhibition of the Art Society of NSW in 1881 ( Sydney Morning Herald 5 October 1881, 6). “No.174 is a clever picture in black and white by Arthur Collingridge of a creek 600 ft underground, at the Fish River Caves; and 176, 177, and 183 show engravings by the Brothers Collingridge [Arthur and George] which are admirable in their delicate finish” ( Sydney Morning Herald 17 October 1881, 6).

Entered Gibbs Shallard & Co.'s competition in 1882: “Mr Arthur Collingridge is represented by a graphic and vigorous sketch, showing how the first locomotive was built at the Atlas works, Sydney” ( Sydney Morning Herald 28 April 1882, 3). “Mr A. Collingridge…send[s] some very creditable paintings, as is usual… [He] is represented by a forcible painting of 'A Spot in Victoria’” ( Daily Telegraph 29 April 1882, quoted Sydney Morning Herald 13 May 1882, 2).

Arthur was awarded a 20 guinea premium for his design 'Her Majesty’s Mail – Stuck Up’, which he entered in the Art Society of NSW competition for a picture in black and white watercolour, suitable for reproduction as a presentation picture to subscribers to the Society’s next art union ( Sydney Morning Herald 21 July 1882, 3). He lost a number of paintings in the Garden Palace fire, including 'Her Majesty’s Mail – Stuck Up’, intended for the forthcoming Art Society exhibition. Fortunately, the painting had already been engraved by the artist ( Sydney Morning Herald 23 September 1882, 7).

Re-elected to committee of the Art Society of NSW in 1882 ( Sydney Morning Herald 21 July 1882, 3) and again in August 1883 and August 1884.

Exhibited Art Society 1883.

“Collingridge, A. – Landscape, with figures, oil and water-colour. Draughtsman and engraver on wood, of rising merit” (A.E. Greenwood & H.W.H. Stephen, Catalogue (Descriptive and Critical) of the Art Gallery with Sydney Art Notes , Sydney, 1883, 41).

John Sands Art Gallery 1884: “Mr A. Collingridge shows a spirited little sketch in oils of 'An Emu Hunt on the Old Maid Plains’” ( Sydney Morning Herald 8 January 1884, 8).

Art Society’s Black and White Exhibition, Royal Arcade, Sydney: 'Mr A. Collingridge, an artist evidently swift in his work, exhibits a view of the Imperial Cave, Fish River Caves, with its stalactites glistening under the rays of the limelight’ ( Sydney Morning Herald 14 April 1884, 3).

Art Society of NSW 5th annual exhibition, 1884: “Mr A. Collingridge’s 'Dead of Thirst’ (72) is perfect in its graphic pourtrayal of a subject almost too solemnly painful for pictorial treatment” ( Sydney Morning Herald 26 July 1884, 179). “Mr Collingridge, who has worked so hard to make the society something more than a mere pocket affair, is represented by several clever specimens of his brush, notably that of the dead bushman, who has cut the telegraph wire as 'dernier ressort’” ( Illustrated Sydney News 2 August 1884, 2). George Collingridge engraved Arthur Collingridge’s Berowra Creek (no.33 in Art Society 5th annual exhibition) as the cover illustration of Illustrated Sydney News 2 August 1884.

Art Society of NSW 6th annual exhibition, 1885: “Mr Arthur Collingridge has made a most praiseworthy attempt to commemorate the ever-to-be-remembered scene at the departure of our troops on the 3rd March last…this picture should not be finally judged in its present unfinished condition. The trustees of the Art Gallery…[should] recognize in it the germ of possibilty, of suitable commemoration and if they regard it as giving proof of the artist’s power to complete it in style worthy of a place within the gallery, they might deem it their duty to make such representations to the Government as may lead to its some day becoming a national possession” (Editorial, Sydney Morning Herald 2 April 1885, 9).

Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London 1886: NSW exhibits – no.2 Collingridge, Arthur, Ryde, Parramatta River, near Sydney: Oil Painting, 'The Nepean River’, Price £20; Oil Painting, 'A Crossing on the Balonne River’, Queensland, price £15; Oil Painting, 'Making First Locomotive at Sydney’, £15; Water Colour Drawing, 'A Tributary of the Hawkesburty River’, price, £10; no.25 Collingridge, Arthur, Ryse, Parramatta River, near Sydney – Wood engravings – 'On the Patterson River’; 'A Creek 600 feet underground, at the Fish River Caves’.

Exhibited Art Society of NSW in 1887.

Art Society Exhibition 1889: “A large work, by Mr A. Collingridge, possesses an historical interest as it depicts the discovery of the Hawkesbury River by Captain Hunter in 1789, just a century ago. The boat is entering the river, near the place now known as Peat’s Ferry, as the morning mists still hang over the low-rounded hills, which are mirrored in the still water at their base. The picture is an impressive one, and, apart from the interest with which it will be regarded by Australians, it is painted with breadth and rigour” ( Sydney Morning Herald 21 September 1889, 7).

“Mr Arthur Collingridge sends four [watercolours] of which 128, 'An Old Cottage at Ryde’, and 161, 'In a Vineyard at Parramatta’, are the best, the former has been purchased so has 151, 'A Bit from the Hawkesbury’ ... the devotion of both brothers to the cause of art entitles their work to most favourable consideration” ( Sydney Mail 19 October 1889, 868, 875).

New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, Dunedin 1889-90: NSW Court – no.212 Art Society of New South Wales, Collection of Paintings – 'On the Darling’, A. Collingridge; 'Discovery of the Hawkesbury River; ditto; 'Kissing Point Road, Ryde’, ditto; 'Wood engraving’, ditto.

“'The Discovery of the Hawkesbury River by Captain Phillip’ by Arthur Collingridge… all this does not of itself constitute creating an Australian art” (De Libra, letter to editor, Sydney Morning Herald 4 April 1890, 4).

Ain’t It Sickening 1893, a watercolour of a young woman who has been picking wattle catching her dress on a post and rail fence, shown in the Art Society Spring Exhibition 1893, cat.27, was offered Sotheby’s 27-28 August 2001, lot 132.

Art Society Exhibition 1897: “There are some attractive views of the Hawkesbury district by Mr Arthur Collingridge” ( Sydney Morning Herald 10 September 1897, 2).

Arthur Collingridge did a large oil painting of Captain Cook which, along with three other paintings (by Mahony, Wolinski and Tindall), decorated an arch erected for the Federation procession in Sydney on 1 January 1901.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007