George Frederick Henry Bell OBE (1 December 1878 – 22 October 1966) was an Australian painter and teacher, critic, portraitist, violinist and war artist[1] who contributed significantly to the advancement of the local Modern movement from the 1920s to the 1930s.

From October 1918 to the end of 1919 he was an official war artist to the 4th Division of the Australian Imperial Force[5] on the Western Front though combat had ceased when he arrived, so he documented scenes of the devastation, and the daily lives of soldiers, of whom he made twelve portraits.

They had a house and studio built for them by Bell's cousin Marcus Barlow; 9 Selbourne Road Toorak remained his lifelong home and there the couple entertained often and artists including Will Dyson and Eric Thake visited to sketch.

[1] Their students over the years included Russell Drysdale, Sali Herman, Bill Salmon, Peter Purves Smith, Yvonne Atkinson, Frances Derham, Geoff Jones and Alan Sumner.

[8] In his teaching Bell adapted from the tradition of Raphael, whose art teaching elevated life drawing and the study of composition, by incorporating contemporary ideas of the 1820s English theorists Roger Fry and Clive Bell, the contemporary French artists André Lhote and Amédée Ozenfant and, after he undertook an extended study trip to England in 1934-5, particularly the Ideas of his friend Iain MacNab,[8] a minor British modernist, with whom he travelled to Spain with in 1935.

Students in this later period included Ian Armstrong, Barbara Brash, Rod Clarke, Jack Courier, Justin Gill, Leonard French, Mary Macqueen, Anne Montgomery, Guelda Pyke, Harry Rosengrave, Rosemary Ryan, David Strachan and Fred Williams.

Adrian Lawlor, Vic O'Connor, Albert Tucker, Sam Atyeo, William Frater, Isabel Tweddle, Mary Cecil Allen, Moya Dyring, Danila Vassilieff, Lina Bryans and Basil Burdett frequented the school as associates or casual students.

[8] That year Bell brought an exhibition of fifty-two works of modern art by artists outside Australia, including paintings by van Gogh and also a Picasso, to the National Gallery of Victoria between October and November.

Its members were; Eric Thake, Alan Sumner, Yvonne Atkinson, Geoff Jones, Jack Courier, Justin Gill, Sali Herman, Ian Armstrong, Fred Williams, Harry Rosengrave, Len French, Constance Stokes, Russell Drysdale.

[18] Works of fellow modernists, friends or those whom he admired, including Arnold Shore, Lina Bryans, Ian Fairweather and Roger Kemp were shown alongside those of his students; Peter Purves Smith, Ian Armstrong, Eric Thake, Barbara Brash; as well as the later work of his students Russell Drysdale, Sali Herman, Bill Salmon, David Strachan, Fred Williams, Dorothy Braund, Michael Shannon and others.