John Mitchell Cantle b. 24 October 1849

Also known as J. M. Cantle
  • Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator),
  • Artist (Painter)
Late colonial era ornithological painter, illustrator, cartoonist and postcard designer. One major catalogued private collection of Cantle's ornithological paintings exists, the works each annotated and dating between 1887 and 1918 with the majority executed between 1887 and 1895.
Tags: Ornithological watercolourist, Postcard
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Art Society of NSW
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Biography John Mitchell Cantle, painter and illustrator, was active in Sydney in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cantle's essential lifetime work consists of several hundred watercolour and gouache paintings of birds. Made with great attention to detail, including date, place and size, they are scrupulously annotated. Cantle also worked in conjunction with the Australian Museum, Sydney, and some of his works are of museum specimens, including a few non-Australian birds. Most were sketched in the wild in the Sydney area, but also throughout eastern New South Wales while he was working as a railway surveyor. ¶

Cantle is also known for his series of ornithological postcards of Australian birds, which include comic compositions. A watercolour, or possibly gouache, painting of birds bathing is held in a private collection and is presumably an original for one of his postcards. It was exhibited at the Royal Art Society in 1883. ¶

A single catalogued collection of 228 Cantle bird paintings is held in a private Melbourne collection. The works date from 1887 to 1918, but the majority were completed between 1887 and 1895. Other paintings belong to descendants. ¶

Other exhibitions include the Third aAnnual exhibition of the Art Society of NSW 1883: '“J.M. Cantle sends five pictures, in which the colouring is very crude. 194 [or 191?] "Hard Pressed" shows promise for the drawing is correct and distance good, and the story easily intelligible'” ( _Sydney Morning Herald_ , 21 March 1883, p.11). ¶

A single catalogued collection of 228 Cantle bird paintings is held in a private Melbourne collection. The works date from 1887 to 1918, but the majority were completed between 1887 and 1895. Other paintings belong to descendants. ¶


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