SIR JOHN WILLIAM (WILL) ASHTON
(1881-1963)
59 SYDNEY HARBOUR / AUSTRALIA.
Circa 1934.
20x25 inches, 51x63
1
/
2
cm. W.T. Baker & Co., Ltd.
Condition B+ / B: restoration, abrasions and over-
painting in image.
Ashton was born in Britain but moved with his
family to Australia at an early age. A prodigious
painter, he became the director of The National
Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1937. In 1932,
upon returning from a year’s sojourn abroad and
speaking of the hoardings in England, Ashton said
“big posters of Sydney Harbour, the Harbour
Bridge . . . would do much more to help Australia
than bus-stop printed entreaties to eat Australian
raisins. This is an age of colorful advertising, and
it is a great mistake not to recognize the fact” (The
Sydney Morning Herald, January 8, 1932, p. 8).
[800/1,200]
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