Sir David Alexander Cecil Low b. 7 April 1891

Also known as David Low
  • Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)
Significant mid 20th century New Zealand born cartoonist and caricaturist who worked in Australia during the 1910s before embarking on a career as an influential political cartoonist in London. Creator of the character Colonel Blimp.
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Citations

  • Information sourced from Janda Gooding Art Gallery of Western Australia, June, Perth, WA, (1997), 'AGWA cartoon printout’.

  • Caban, Geoffrey (1983), 'A fine line – a history of Australian commercial art’, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, NSW, pp 32-7.

  • Foster, Susan E., 'Low, David Alexander Cecil 1891-1963’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, (updated September, 30 2002), New Zealand.

  • Grant, Ian F. (1988), 'The Kiwi invasion that never stopped’, Sydney, NSW: Bulletin, 11-15, p 113.

  • Grant, Ian F. (1987), 'The Child Prodigy 1907-19’, The unauthorized version – a cartoon history of New Zealand, ed. David Bateman (in association with Fraser Books), (2nd edition), Auckland, NZ, pp 80-1.

  • Harris, Joe (1970), 'The bitter fight – a pictorial history of the Australian labor movement’, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, Qld, pp 232, 240.

  • Jensen, John (1989), 'Australasian Cartoonists in Britain 1889-1988’, Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, London, England, UK.

  • Kerr, Joan (1999), 'Artists and Cartoonists in Black and White’, National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW.

  • King, Jonathan (1979), 'The other side of the coin – a cartoon history of Australia’, Cassell Australia (Revised edition), Stanmore, NSW.

  • Lindesay, Vane (1986), 'Low, Sir David Alexander Cecil (1891 – 1963)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, Vic., pp 158-159.

  • Lindesay, Vane (1979), 'The inked-in image – a social and historical survey of Australian comic art’, Hutchinson of Australia (new edition), Richmond, Vic.

  • Lindesay, Vane (1994), 'Drawing from life – a history of the Australian Black and White Artists’ Club’, State Library of New South Wales Press, Sydney, NSW.

  • Low, David (1935), 'Ye Madde Designer’, London, England, UK.

  • Low, David (1956), 'Low’s Autobiography’, Michael Joseph, London, England, UK.

  • Low, David (1918), 'The Billy Book’, Sydney, NSW.

  • Low, David (1928), 'The Best of Low’, London, UK: Jonathan Cape.

  • Moore, William (1934), 'Story of Australian Art’, volume II, Angus & Robertson (facsimile 1980), Sydney, NSW, pp 118-9.

  • Rafty, Tony (with Mack, Brodie) (1964), 'Fifty Years of Australian Cartooning’, Blaxland Gallery, Sydney, NSW.

  • Rolfe, Patricia (1979), 'The journalistic javelin – an illustrated history of the Bulletin’, Wildcat Press, Gladesville, NSW (distributed by Golden Press, Sydney, NSW), pp 231, 263-8.

  • Seymour-Ure, Colin K. (1975), 'How Special are Cartoonists?’, Getting them in Line – An exhibition of Caricature in Cartoon, Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.

  • Seymour-Ure, Colin K. (1996), 'Drawn and Quartered – Hocken Lecture 1996’, Hocken Library & University of Otago NZ, Dunedin, NZ.

  • Seymour-Ure, Colin K. (with Schoff, Jim) (1985), 'David Low’, Secker & Warburg, London, England, UK.

  • Seymour-Ure, Colin K. (et al) (c.1995), 'David Low – Kiwi Cartoonist on Hitler’s Blacklist’, NZ Cartoon Archive Trust and Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ.

  • Thomas, David (1965), 'The cartoons of David Low’, Australian Letters 7/1, October, pp 12-31.

  • (1939), 'Low Makes Xmas Cartoon’, Sydney, NSW: Pix, 12- 23, pp 21-2.

  • Kerr, Joan, 'Savages and Blackfellows’, (lecture).

  • Taylor, A. J. P. (1972), 'Beaverbrook’, Hamilton, London, England, UK.

  • Low, David (1942), 'British Cartoonists, Caricaturists and Comic Artists’, London, England, UK.

  • Bills, Mark (2006), 'The Art of Satire’, Museum of London, London, England, UK.

See also

  • 'In his other cartoons, e.g. Colonel Blimp explaining to a puzzled Low, 'Hitler only needs arms so that he can declare peace on the rest of the world'', He also included easily identifiable self-portraits (black eyebrows, broad-brimmed black hat and small goatee beard grown after a visit to Russia in 1932).
  • 'Self-portrait among page of his caricatures of other artists, Lone Hand 2 March 1914, 249'.
  • 'photographs of Low at work in Pix 23 December 1939, 21-22'.
  • 'possible self portrait One Recruit and Another '... the modest person in the newspaper is the "Bulletin" artist - rejected on account of epizootic (sp?)' Bulletin 8 August 1915, 13'.
  • 'possible self portrait, The Tale of a Shirt, Bulletin 23 December 1915, 13'.
  • 'caricature self-portrait? (ill. King, 88)'.
  • 'Self-portrait Off to London, published Bulletin August(?) 1919 (frontispiece, Seymour-Ure)'.

Initial data sources

  • Black and white artists

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Related collections
  • Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (collected in)
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK (Dept of Prints and Drawings) (collected in)
  • Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK (collected in)
  • New Zealand High Commission, London, UK (collected in)
  • National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (collected in)
  • Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand (collected in)
  • Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA (collected in)
  • City of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, Victoria (collected in)
  • Melbourne Savage Club (collected in)
  • State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic. (collected in)
  • National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT (collected in)
  • Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (collected in)
  • Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (collected in)
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK (Dept of Prints and Drawings) (collected in)
  • Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK (collected in)
  • New Zealand High Commission, London, UK (collected in)
  • National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (collected in)
  • Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand (collected in)
  • Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA (collected in)
  • City of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, Victoria (collected in)
  • Melbourne Savage Club (collected in)
  • State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic. (collected in)
  • National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT (collected in)
  • Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (collected in)