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Arthur Burgess
Arthur Burgess

Arthur Burgess

1879 - 1957
BiographyArthur Burgess studied art in Sydney. In 1901 he settled in England where he continued his studies in St Ives, Cornwall, Finally settling in London.

He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, London from 1904 and worked as an illustrator for The Graphic and the Illustrated London News. Burgess was appointed the official naval artist for the Commonwealth of Australia in 1918 and went on to become the art editor of Brassey's Naval and Shipping Annual from 1922 to 1930. Burgess specialised in maritime art, both during peacetime and war, and is noted for his paintings of naval and commercial shipping ranging from battleships at sea through to barges on the Thames.

The artist's father James Ogle Burgess RN served as a young midshipman on HMS PHOEBE rising to sub-lieutenant. On leaving the Navy he emigrated to Tasmania where he married. They lived in NSW where he worked as a district surveyor. After retiring early in 1902 due to an injury suffered in the field at Glen Innes, he and his wife Nelly built a house 'Streatley' in Vaucluse where he sadly he died in 1910 as a delayed result of his accident.
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