Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox artist George Courtney Benson (1886–1960) was an Australian painter, muralist and cartoonist, and an official war artist during World War I.[1]
Biography
George Courtney Benson was born in Collingwood, Melbourne in 1886 to Richard and Mary (Template:Nee Murdoch) Benson.[2]
He studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1903.[1]
Benson enlisted in the 3rd Field Artillery Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force in September 1914 and saw active duty in the Mediterranean.[3] He took sketches of the landscape prior to the allied invasion at Gallipoli.[4]
Benson was commissioned as an Australian official war artists in April 1918, and after the end of the war worked at the Australian War Records Section in London.[3][5]
A scrapbook of 140 sketches drawn by Benson during his time in the First World War are now held by the Australian War Memorial.[6]
He designed the commemorative vignette for the first airmail envelopes carried from England to Australia by Keith and Ross Smith in 1919.[7]
In 1931, Benson was commissioned by the University of Western Australia to paint the ceiling beams of Winthrop Hall.[1] He carried out further mural commissions in Perth, while also working as a critic and cartoonist for The West Australian newspaper.[1]
Benson applied for a second commission with the Australian War Memorial at the beginning of the Second World War, but was declined due to his age (he was in his 50s at the time).[3] Benson instead enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces and worked as a camouflage officer until 1943.[3]
Benson was a long-standing member of the Melbourne Savage Club from 1913 to 1936.[8]
Collections
References
External links
Paintings
- ANZAC Australian War Memorial
- Anzac looking south Australian War Memorial
- Corbie from above, 12th Infantry Brigade HQ Australian War Memorial
- Chinese Labour Corps Australian War Memorial
- Lewis gunner Australian War Memorial
- The man with the donkey, Anzac 1915 Australian War Memorial
- Mont Kemmel from near Hill 60 Australian War Memorial
- Samothrace from Anzac, 1915 Australian War Memorial
- Shell green, Gallipoli Australian War Memorial
- Sketch for Walking wounded Australian War Memorial
Other
- Letters of a Nation Template:CbignoreAustralia Post
- Template:Cite news
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Template:Cite web
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBDM - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ 'Camofleur', "Musketeers of Brush and Pencil with the A.I.F.: Art Under Fire: The Battlefield as Studio", The (Melbourne) Herald, (1 February 1919), p. 4.
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite book
- ↑ Template:Cite web