John Alexander Thomas Shirlow, etcher, painter, cartoonist and art teacher, led Australia’s painter-etcher movement in the early 20th century. He was born on 13 December 1869 in Sunbury, Victoria, son of Robert Shirlow and his wife Rebecca, née Flanigan, who had together migrated from Ireland to Australia. His father was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and an instructor at the Sunbury Industrial School (Victoria).
John Shirlow attended various schools as the family moved several times during his childhood. He studied at Melbourne Scotch College and entered the workforce with Haase Duffus and Co. Printers, Flinders Lane. In 1889 he began working for Sands and McDougall as a mechanic and remained with the firm until 1913. He was employed for a period of time at the bank note printing branch of the Commonwealth Treasury and at some point graduated with a diploma of electrical technology from the Working Men’s College (now RMIT). Shirlow subsequently joined the electric supply department of the Melbourne City Council. For a significant part of his life John Shirlow followed the profession of an electrical engineer, while art was his hobby and passion.
Shirlow was self-taught in the art of etching, as no instruction was available in regards to this technique, albeit for the written guidance Shirlow found in P. G. Hamerton’s Etching and Etchers (London, 1868). Another source of inspiration for Shirlow’s interest in etching was the collection of prints that had been purchased for the National Gallery of Victoria in the early 1890s, including works by James McNeill Whistler and Charles Meryon. Demonstrating his ingenuity and his zeal for etching, Shirlow handcrafted his own tools, prepared his own materials and even constructed his own presses.
John Shirlow briefly studied painting with Artur Loureiro and attended evening classes at the National Gallery School (1890-95) alongside fellow artists included Max Meldrum, George Coates, James Quinn and C. Web Gilbert. On Christmas Day in 1895 Shirlow married the concert singer Grace Nixon.
The Victorian Artists’ Society elected John Shirlow as a member in 1897 and two years later he was a member of the Council, where he remained in office for many years. Indeed, he was an influential figure in the arts, issuing the first portfolio of etchings published in Australia in 1904, a copy of which is held in the British Museum. Entitled The Five Etchings, the portfolio contained etchings of Princes Bridge (1895), Yarra at Abbotsford (1900), The Jail (1901), A Bye-way (1896), and Pasture Lands (1903).
John Shirlow is particularly well known for his many etchings of Melbourne buildings and street scenes therefore his works are prized for their historical interest as well as their artistic significance. A popular example of his work is The Central Station (1910), a large plate showing the dome of Melbourne’s Flinders Street Railway Station in the evening. His first plate, a study of Scots Church, Melbourne, as seen from Lonsdale Street, was etched in 1895, while he was still attending classes at the National Gallery School. Sydney also captured the artist’s attention, as he depicted sites of the city published as The Sydney Set following his short visit to the New South Wales capital in 1917, during which time he visited the artist Norman Lindsay. He made several trips to Tasmania and a number of his works depicting the state’s old buildings (Hobart Obit) are held in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
John Shirlow was an active contributor to the arts. In 1913 he was appointed assistant examiner of drawing at Melbourne University. He became a trustee of the National Gallery in 1921 and also served as a member of the Felton Bequest Committee. He founded etching classes at the Working Men’s College in 1929, as well as lectured and wrote on the technique. His book Perspective, a Text Book for the Use of Schools and Colleges was published in 1932 and received positive reviews. From 1926 he was art master at Scotch College. In the press he served as a Melbourne correspondent for The Studio, a prominent English art monthly publication, while his humorous sketches and several articles were included in The Bulletin (Sydney) and The Lone Hand respectively. On another note, he served as choirmaster of the North Carlton Presbyterian Church from 1906 to 1913.
John Shirlow died on 22 June 1936 at his home in Caulfield, Melbourne. He was survived by his wife and two sons and two daughters.
The art of John Shirlow is represented in The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; The Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; The British Museum, London; and Royal Gallery at Stockholm.
A working-class marriage gag in Gadfly 1907 is signed 'J. Shirlow’ (ill. Lindesay 1979, 131), while 'J.A.S’, presumably also Shirlow, decorated the invitation to the Melbourne Savage Club’s fifty-third annual dinner in December 1910 with The High Kangaruler (NLA (PIC R4971 LOC 3793-B)
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
ecwubben
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2012
