Heinrich Egersdörfer b. 1853

Also known as Heiner Egersdorfer, H. E., Heiner Egersdörfer
  • Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator),
  • Artist (Printmaker),
  • Artist (Painter)
Late colonial era German-born painter, illustrator and cartoonist. Worked in Sydney and Melbourne as well as Cape Town, South Africa. He founded 'The South African Illustrated News' at Cape Town in 1884.

painter, illustrator and cartoonist, was born in Nuremberg, Germany, where he trained as a lithographer. He travelled abroad in the 1870s, taking part in the Franco-Prussian War and spending much time in England. He went to South Africa in 1879, founded The South African Illustrated News at Cape Town in 1884, and produced many South African postcards (Greenwall). After the paper folded in the late 1880s he came to Australia where he contributed to the Illustrated Sydney News . It was owned by the Town and Country Journal , for which he also drew. His drawings initialled 'H.E.’ include Mining Life in Victoria – Scenes at a New Rush near Rushworth ( TCJ 17 September 1887, 599) and an illustration portraying a settler shooting two Aborigines at his front door ( TCJ 17 December 1887, 1271).

From about 1889 he contributed cartoons to the Bulletin usually signed 'Heiner Egersdorfer’, including an original drawing for a cartoon published 12 January 1889 entitled An Aboriginality : 'James: “Hello, Charlie, what are you doing up there, paintin’ Hams?”/ Bush Artist (indignant): “Hams be blowed, them’s the Queens Arms” (Mitchell Library Px*D461/10). Other ML originals include a troop inspection gag and a cartoon about selling art 2 November 1889. They Were Afraid . 'Mother-in-law: “In Queensland the blacks that came near us were all afraid of me.”/ Son-in-law: “Of course they were, why should they make an exception?” 7 February 1891, 14; AT A VOLUNTEER SHAMFIGHT . 'SERGEANT [to men in bar drinking]: “Will you fellows just come out an attend to your duty? There’s the fight going on and you are drinking in here.”/ PRIVATE: “Look here, Sergeant, in every fight there must be dead 'uns, ain’t that so?”/ SERGEANT: “Course there must.”/ PRIVATE: “Well, we are the dead 'uns”, 21 February 1891, 17; For Valour (soldiers) 2 May 1891, 9. He exhibited with the Art Society of New South Wales from 1887.

Egersdorfer later lived at Charterisville in Victoria with Lionel and Norman Lindsay . McCulloch suggests that his knowledge of current German black-and-white art may have been the source of this obvious influence on the work of the Lindsay and Dyson brothers, but Egersdorfer’s drawings don’t show much evidence of this. Eventually he returned to live permanently in South Africa. During the Boer War he was artist-correspondent for various overseas publications, including The Graphic , and he drew cartoons for several local publications, including The Owl founded by Charles Penstone and Constance Roth (Mrs Penstone). He was sole cartoonist on The South African Review until close to the end of the war, when a few by Islay appeared. In 1900 The South African Review Book of 50 Famous Cartoons: A Unique Souvenir of the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1900 was published, entirely illustrated with cartoons by Egersdorfer dating from 29 July 1897 to 29 July 1900 (all anti-Boer) (ill. Greenwall, 80). His South African work continued to appear in The Graphic until 1908. He died in England in 1915.

Writers:
Kerr, Joan
Date written:
1996
Last updated:
2007