Painter, illustrator, writer and mathematics teacher; arrived from England in January 1885, aged 22. Described by J.F. Bruce as being '6’ 3” high, aesthetic, virile, uniting the Cambridge manner with the Bohemian Spirit (with) a picturesque and paradoxical personality’. Young drew for Lone Hand (including the cover of 2 March 1908 featuring an Aboriginal woman), designed posters, painted watercolours, wrote many articles and two short plays, designed ladies’ gowns and programmes for musical evenings in Toorak and was a teacher of musketry during WWI. Ure Smith (quoted Caban p.55), along with many others, praised his poster work, influenced by the English Beggarstaff Brothers (a.k.a. Pryde & Nicholson). He also illustrated Helen E. Wallace’s Magic Casements (Melbourne, 1925) with three colour plates.
His writings include the article “Fremiet’s 'Gorilla and Woman’”, Lone Hand 1 (June 1907), 226-29. (see Fink monograph).
Young also did the very atmospheric The Chaplain (Early Days) [also known as: Convict Prison, The Old Hobart Gaol and The Prison], watercolour and gouache on paper (1930-32), which includes the prison chaplain Rev. Robert Knopwood on his white horse, Timor, in front of the building along with some Aborigines and a red-coated soldier on guard in front of his sentry box. This painting was one of Young’s Early Days series. This collection of eleven works depicted Australian colonial history subjects of the early 19th century including: William Buckley, John Pascoe Fawkner, Lady Franklin, John Batman and the explorers Joseph Gellibrand and George Hesse.
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2013
