Biography |
<p></p>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 <i>_The South African Illustrated News</i>_ 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 <i>_Illustrated Sydney News</i>_ . It was owned by the <i>_Town and Country Journal</i>_ , for which he also drew. His drawings initialled 'H.E.' include <i>_Mining Life in Victoria – Scenes at a New Rush near Rushworth</i> (<i>TCJ</i>_ ( _TCJ_ 17 September 1887, 599) and an illustration portraying a settler shooting two Aborigines at his front door (<i>TCJ</i> _TCJ_ 17 December 1887, 1271). <p></p>¶ ¶ From about 1889 he contributed cartoons to the <i>_Bulletin</i>_ usually signed 'Heiner Egersdorfer', including an original drawing for a cartoon published 12 January 1889 entitled <i>_An Aboriginality</i>_ : '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. <i>_They Were Afraid</i>_ . '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; <i>_AT A VOLUNTEER SHAMFIGHT</i>_ . '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; <i>_For Valour</i>_ (soldiers) 2 May 1891, 9. He exhibited with the Art Society of New South Wales from 1887. <p></p>¶ ¶ Egersdorfer later lived at Charterisville in Victoria with <b>*Lionel</b>* and <b>*Norman Lindsay</b>* . 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 <b>*Dyson* </b>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 <i>_The Graphic</i>_ , and he drew cartoons for several local publications, including <i>_The Owl</i>_ founded by <b>*Charles Penstone</b>* and <b>*Constance Roth</b>* (Mrs Penstone). He was sole cartoonist on <i>_The South African Review</i>_ until close to the end of the war, when a few by Islay appeared. In 1900 <i>_The South African Review Book of 50 Famous Cartoons: A Unique Souvenir of the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1900</i>_ 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 <i>_The Graphic</i>_ until 1908. He died in England in 1915.
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