John Charles Goodchild, painter, etcher, cartoonist, designer and teacher, was born in London on 30 March 1898, the fourth of nine children of John Goodchild, journeyman lead-glazier, and Jessie Mary, née White. He was educated at the Strand School, King’s College, London, and in 1913 he and his family relocated to Adelaide, Australia. Upon arriving in his new hometown, Goodchild took on several jobs including signwriting, in which he produced many Bushell’s Tea advertisements.
During WWI, Goodchild enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1917 and served on the Western Front with the 9th Field Ambulance. His drawings of soldiers were published in the forces’ newspaper, The Digger. Furthermore, Goodchild was later commissioned by the Australian Government to produce 36 pen drawings of cemeteries in France for the Defence Department’s publication Where Australians Rest (Melbourne, 1920).
Pursuing his artistic interests, triggered during his service with the AIF, Goodchild enrolled at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts in 1920, with the support of the Returned Soldiers Scheme. For the next twelve months he received artistic training under the tutelage of Fred C. Britton,and in that time he produced Adelaide in Pen and Ink Drawings (1920). In the following year, Goodchild returned to London and enrolled at the Central School of Arts and Crafts where he studied etching under Frank L. Emanuel and W.P. Robins.
Returning to Adelaide in 1922 to earn a living, Goodchild became a commercial artist and taught etching at the School of Arts and Crafts. He held his first solo exhibition at the Society of Arts Gallery, Adelaide in 1923, followed by his participation in the Australian Painters-Etchers’ (and Graphic Art) Society exhibition in Sydney that year. Goodchild was also the Vice-President of the Society at the time. Providing early support for his international reputation was his inclusion in the Australian Exhibition, with Henri van Raalte and Hans Heysen, at the Royal Academy in London in 1924. Goodchild was also one of the Australian etchers included in Lionel Lindsay’s article in the prestigious English journal The Print Collector’s Quarterly of October 1924.
In 1926 Goodchild married fellow artist Doreen Rowley. Together they left Australia and travelled to the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, studying engraving under Emanuel (Goodchild’s prior teacher) and lithography under A.S. Hartrick, while Goodchild also taught drawing and design in London. In 1928, they travelled across Europe, visiting countries such as France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Holland.
The couple returned to Adelaide in 1929, although they would continue to travel to Europe and elsewhere, including New Zealand and Japan. During the 1930s, Goodchild worked as a practicing artist and teacher, while also engaging in advertising and other commercial endeavours, such as designing and producing furniture, panels in bas-relief and the lamps and pylons for the Adelaide City Bridge (opened 1931). In 1937, along with the prominent Adelaide artist Hans Heysen, Goodchild was one of the founding members of the Australian Academy of Art. Conservative in its ideals, the organization sought to emulate the principles of the English Academy.
Indeed, Goodchild’s work was traditional, avoiding any signs of abstraction. His compositions frequently returned to views of Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and scenes from England and Europe. His colour lithographs, Flinders Ranges: South Australia’s Winter Sunland (NLA) and Rest & Relax on the Murray Trip – Rail and River Tours c.1930 (cover & back NLA News December 1999), were produced for the South Australian Government Publicity and Tourist Bureau. He also created many lithographs for magazines (some in the British Museum) and was a member of the Painter-Etchers and the Senefelder Club and Graphic Art Society, London.
Furthermore, Goodchild was an influential figure in Adelaide’s artistic community. In 1937-40 he served as the president of the (Royal) South Australian Society of Arts. Also during this period he was appointed as a Board member (1938-53) of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery (renamed the National Gallery of South Australia in 1940), retiring from the post in 1953 to undertake extended travel and was reappointed in 1960-69. In addition, he continued his long association with the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts by serving as the School’s Principal during 1941-45.
In March 1945 the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, commissioned Goodchild as an official war artist. Significantly, on 2 September 1945, he was present at, and took a cinefilm of, the signing of the Japanese surrender aboard the American battleship Missouri, in Tokyo Bay. After WWII, Goodchild briefly worked as a cartoonist for the Adelaide News. He continued to travel frequently and maintained his artistic practice well into his later years, painting Strzelecki Track when he was 80 years old. Survived by his wife, daughter and two sons, John Charles Goodchild died on 9 February 1980.
The art of John Goodchild is represented in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra (mainly watercolours); Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland; British Museum, London and the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
ecwubben
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2012
