George A. J. Webb
George Alfred John Webb (1861 – 16 August 1949) was an English painter who had a considerable career in Australia painting portraits of South Australian and Victorian public figures.
[2] His older sister Frances "Fanny" Webb had married the painter Charles Rolando (1844-1893) around 1874, moving to Australia in 1885 and setting up a studio in Grey Street, East Melbourne.
[3] Webb lived and worked first in Melbourne, Victoria, painting landscapes around Fernshaw and Gippsland Lakes which Rolando also favoured and often took him there on excursions.
He joined the South Australian Society of Arts soon after his arrival, and proved to be an active member, participating in most exhibitions and was for some years its vice president.
In August 1894 the newly formed Melbourne Art Club had a showing at the Old Courthouse adjacent to the Town Hall, opened by the Chief Justice, which included works by Webb.
Other exhibitors were James Ashton, H. Edward Davies, Gordon Coutts, A. J. Daplyn, Alfred R. Coffey, A. Henry Fullwood, W. Lister Lister, H. P. Gill, Rosa C. Fiveash, Elizabeth Caroline Armstrong, Annie Watson Laughton, Helen Hambidge, Miss M. A. Walker, Albert A. Pedvin, Miss E. A. Bloxam, Mrs. M. C. Scott, Emily Meston, Ethel Anna Stephens, Julian R. Ashton, Tom Roberts, Sydney Long, Alexander Colquhoun, T. St. George Tucker, Mrs. A. M. Boyd, J. Ford Paterson, Walter Withers, Norman Macgeorge, Helen A. Peters, Harold Septimus Power, E. Phillips Fox, Fred McCubbin, Margie White, Jean L. Wilson[14] He was represented in almost every succeeding exhibition by the Society.
Only one portrait was shown, (Chief Justice Samuel Way), with dozens of seascapes and landscapes in both water-colour and oils: scenes in the Victorian Mallee and fern gullies, the Adelaide hills, on the River Torrens, the Buffalo Ranges (Victoria), the valley just below the viaduct near Blackwood, on the Belair Road, at Victor Harbor, Port Elliot, on the gulf coast, Backstairs Passage, near Strathalbyn, from the summit of Mount Lofty, and the Botanic Park.
F. W. Cox of Congregational Church, Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide[21] 1903 C. H. Goode (26 May 1827 – 5 February 1922) businessman and philanthropist, held by the Art Gallery of South Australia[22] An image of the painting may be seen here[23] 1904 Colonel William Light purchased by John Lewis M.L.C.
[27] 1910 Sir Richard Baker hung in the South Australian Jockey Club's committee room[28] 1911 Thomas Templer of the Loyal Albert Lodge.
C. W. Evan of Stow Memorial Church[37] 1928 Sir William Brunton[38] Sir William Hennessy[38] Archbishop Lowther Clarke[38] John Howard Angas[38] 1915 Simon Harvey, an Adelaide timber merchant[39] 1921 John Murray, Premier of Victoria[40] 1918 Professor Ralph Tate, a gift of Tate's daughter Mrs. W. L. McDonald to the Public Library of South Australia.
