Design and Art Australia Online

travelling oil, house, sign and coach painter and professional photographer, was of German birth. In 1858 he travelled south-east from Sydney to Yass, New South Wales where he painted a large, 5 feet 4 inches x 2 feet 4 inches (162.5 × 71.1 cm), and detailed oil view of the town. Having provided the picture with 'a handsome cedar frame’ decorated with painted heraldic devices and hung it in Mr Colls’ Commercial Hotel, Grube announced in the Yass Courier on 3 July that it would be raffled on Monday 12 July with thirty tickets at £1 each. The painting is now in the possession of the Hall Committee of St Augustine’s Catholic Parish, Yass, previously on long-term loan to the National Library of Australia.

On 7 August 1858, Grube was soliciting work at Yass as a house, coach and ornamental painter and signwriter. In November he was involved in a master and servant’s court case and the following February a court case was expected over buildings he had worked on for Dr Blake. He abandoned the house painting and decorating business and within a few weeks was advertising as a photographer (March 1859). Then he moved on. When arrested by the police at Queenscliff, Victoria, the following year for stealing a bay gelding at Adelong Creek, New South Wales, John Grube was said to be 'a German Photographic artist’ who used the alias of Hobart. (No photographs are known under either name.) Described as 'fair complexioned, with light moustache and stoops a little when walking’, he was travelling with his wife and child.

Grube’s constant brushes with the law came to a head in January 1860 when he was convicted of forging a promissory note for £100 and, vigorously protesting his innocence, was sent to prison for two years. In June 1864 he was again in trouble, being accused of fraud at Geelong (Vic.). On this occasion he was described as a German ('but speaks good English’) about thirty years of age, 5 feet 7 inches (170 cm) tall and of smart appearance, habitually dressed in a 'light tweed suit, inverness cape, and deerstalker hat’. Presumably after serving another term in prison, he worked as a building contractor from Dorcas Street West, Emerald Hill (now South Melbourne) – his address in the Melbourne Directory for 1867.

The following year Grube was back at Sydney working as an oil and colour man and japanner (staining floors and furniture black in Japanese style). Another foray into the Fine Arts is recorded in 1870 when Grube’s Lithgow Valley, Zig-Zag (unlocated) was shown at Sydney’s Intercolonial Exhibition in the section reserved for oil paintings by amateurs. It was for sale at £55. In partnership with Frederick Speck, he had an ornamental sign-writing business at 65 Market Street, Sydney by 1871. Speck alone was listed in the business in 1873 and it seems likely that Grube died in 1872. A Mrs Ann Grube, possibly his widow, lived at Vinegrove, Darlington, from 1876 to 1880. He might, of course, have been back in gaol.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011