Sir George Russell Drysdale was born on 7 February 1912 at Bognor Regis in England. His father, also called George Russell Drysdale who led a private life, was the son of George Russell, the pioneer pastoralist who had with his brothers established the Pioneer Sugar mill on the Burdekin River in far north Queensland. His mother, Isobel Gates, was English. In 1919 the family returned to Australia, to the Pioneer plantation. Then, in 1923 they moved to Melbourne where the young Tas, as he was called by family and friends, was sent to Geelong Grammar School. In 1929, his last year of school, Drysdale was discovered to have a detached retina in one eye. As a way of encouraging him to focus, he was given extensive drawing lessons, five days a week.
The following year he stayed on another family property at Boxwood, in the Riverina district to help with the shearing before travelling north to Pioneer. His first European travel as an adult was with his uncle Cluny Drysdale in 1931. On his return to Australia he had decided to be a farmer, and settled on the family farm at Boxwood.However when he was in Melbourne recovering from a further eye operation, his surgeon showed some of his drawings to Daryl Lindsay, who suggested that he take art classes with George Bell. When Bell encouraged him to look at modern (Post-Impressionist) art, Drysdale was less than impressed. However on his next journey to Europe in 1932, he saw enough modern art to convince him to move towards a more liberated style, albeit one firmly based in the European academic tradition.
In 1935 he married Elizabeth (Bon) Stephen, a friend of Macquarie Gallery’s Lucy Swanton, who encouraged him in his art. After further eye surgery Drysdale renewed his classes with George Bell, and became a friendly rival with fellow student Peter Purves Smith.
In 1938 they travelled again to London and Drysdale enrolled in classes with Iain Macnab at the Grosvenor School. He also joined Peter Purves Smith in his Paris studio and painted there with him. The threat of war caused them to return to Australia. In Melbourne Drysdale shared George Bell’s studio, but disliked the acrimonious politics of the Contemporary Art Society. He was now blind in one eye and was not allowed to enlist in the army. Instead he tried managing Boxwood, but realised that he lacked the necessary skills so the family moved to Sydney, and art.
The 1940s to the early 1960s were his most productive years. He travelled to the old gold mining town of Hill End and neighbouring Sofala and immortalised the sparse townships of the outback. He drew the devastation of the El Nino drought of the 1940s and turned it into Henry Moore influenced deep red-toned landscape paintings. He honoured the aspirations of the Aboriginal people of the far north, and the harsh life of outback Australians.
He did not ignore the family business. In 1947 he joined the Board of Pioneer Sugar Mills, and often visited the property up north which he called his bq). Spiritual homebq). .
Russell Drysdale, along with Sidney Nolan, came to characterise the international face of Australian art in the early 1950s. He had frequent successful exhibitions in London, and his work was purchased by both the Tate and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1960 the Art Gallery of New South Wales organised the first scholarly retrospective of his work.
His private life was not so fortunate. The suicide of his son Tim in July 1962 was followed by that of his wife Bon in November 1963. Seven months later he married Maisie, the widow of his friend Peter Purves Smith. They bought land outside Gosford on the NSW Central Coast, and there built Bouddi Farm, a place to live and to work. There was little art made in his last years, but he was active as both a member of the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board and the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He was knighted for his services to art in 1969 and died of cancer on 29 June 1981.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2011
