George Bell studied in Melbourne and Paris, and was elected a member of the Modern Society of Portrait Painters, London, in 1908. After spending 17 years abroad, including a period as an official war artist, he returned to Australia in 1920 and began teaching privately in 1922. In 1932 he founded the Bell-Shore school, which became the centre of the modern movement in Melbourne. In his Foreward to Classical Modernism, James Mollison wrote, 'Bell occupies a unique position in the development of Australian art. After spending a significant portion of his career working in a traditional manner, he was converted to modern art and spent the remainder of his life instilling its principles into two generations of Australian painters.'
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1998
© Louis Kahan/Copyright Agency, 2024
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Sarah Engledow on a foundational gallery figure who was quick on the draw.
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