Scrapbook relating to William Lister Lister and his work 1888-1944 compiled by Oswald Bruce McCarthy in 1944 with miscellaneous papers of Percy Spence 1888-1894

MLMSS 3974X

fonds

1888-1894

914640

1 outsize box of textual material

William Lister Lister, landscape and seascape artist, was born in Sydney, N.S.W. in 1859. He was educated overseas and became an engineer. On his return to Australia in 1888, he became well known for his depiction of New South Wales coastal scenery. He was President of the Royal Art Society from, 1897 to 1941, a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1900 until his death in 1943 and its Vice President from 1919. Percy Frederick Seaton Spence was born in Sydney, N.S.W. in 1868 and became a painter and an illustrator of books and magazines such as the Bulletin. He left Australia in 1895 and pursued a successful career in London, where he drew for various newspapers and exhibited at the Royal Academy. He died in England in 1933

A note by O. B. McCarthy states that a collection of newspapers was found in Lister's studio and home after his death. He organized these as a "record of William Lister Lister and his art". Presumably the Spence material was also found in the studio, which Spence had shared with Lister at one time. A signed copy of McCarthy's funeral address for Lister is included in the volume of cuttings

Item 1
a. Scrapbook relating to William Lister Lister 1888-1944 compiled by O. B. McCarthy in 1944. It includes cuttings, exhibition catalogues, invitations and letters including one from Andrew Fisher, Prime Minister, 18 May 1914 and another from Lord Beauchamp, former Governor of New South Wales, 14th July 1930

Items 2-3
b. Miscellaneous papers of Percy Spence 1888-1894. Correspondents include the artist G. B. Nerli and poet George Herbert Gibson. The collection includes the draft of a letter by Spence on fellow artist Julian Ashton and items relating to Spence's Art Union, including the Articles of Agreement 1893 signed by, among others, Spence, Lister, G. A. Collingridge, Tom Roberts and Edmund Barton then N.S.W. Attorney General

This collection includes pictorial material, for location and description of this see Pic.Acc.288 in Pic. Source file

Information transferred from Manuscripts Leaf Catalogue No. 1 (7-1224C) as part of the eRecords Project, 2010-2011