Frank R. Crozier on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Francis Rossiter Crozier ( – 22 October 1948) was a war records artist who is represented in the
"Art Exhibition" by Harold Herbert
'' The Argus'', 12 September 1944 His works now fetch modest prices at auction. Crozier died at Warrandyte on 22 October 1948.
Frank Crozier
@ Design & Art Australia {{DEFAULTSORT:Crozier, Frank 1883 births 1948 deaths 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists Australian war artists Australian male painters Australian military personnel of World War I Artists from Melbourne Military personnel from Melbourne National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni
Francis Rossiter Crozier ( – 22 October 1948) was a war records artist who is represented in the Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national war memorial, war museum, museum and archive dedicated to all Australians who died as a result of war, including peacekeeping duties. The AWM is located in Campbell, Australian Capital Territory, C ...
's art collection along with other Australian official war artists
Australian official war artists are those who have been expressly employed by either the Australian War Memorial (AWM) or the Army Military History Section (or its antecedents). These artist soldiers depicted some aspect of war through art; this ...
such as H. Septimus Power, Arthur Streeton, George Washington Lambert and Ivor Hele
Sir Ivor Henry Thomas Hele, CBE (13 June 1912 – 1 December 1993) was an Australian artist noted for portraiture. He was Australia's longest serving war artist and completed more commissioned works than anyone else in the history of Aust ...
.
Biography
Crozier studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in 1907 and was a member of the Charterisville artists' colony in Heidelberg, Victoria somewhere between 1900 and 1910 with Amandus Julius Fischer, then with the group centred on Clara Southern at nearbyWarrandyte
Warrandyte ( ) is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 24 km north-east of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Manningham Local government areas of Victoria, ...
. He and W. B. McInnes held a private exhibition in Collins Street before leaving for Europe in 1912.
Crozier was a soldier with the Australian Imperial Force after enlisting in March 1915 where he served in the 22nd Battalion in Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
and on the Gallipoli
The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east.
Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...
peninsula. Whilst at Gallipoli, he was approached (with other soldiers Ted Colles, Otho Hewitt, Cyril Leyshon and David Barker) by journalist C. E. W. Bean to help illustrate the "Anzac Book", a collection of short stories and illustrations for the troops. His artistic talent was noted by Bean, who had been given the role of official military historian and when official war artists were being commissioned by the Australian Government, Bean recommended Crozier be included in the scheme.
Crozier served in France in 1917, notably in the area around Pozières but it was only in 1918 that he was made an official war artist. Where other war artists were civilians who were attached to the army and given honorary rank, Frank Crozier was already a serving soldier, and so his contributions were part of his military duties.
Exhibitions
Post-war Crozier appears to have made a living as a prolific painter of farm scenes and landscapes * 1928, 16–27 October: New Gallery, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne * 1940, August: War paintings and landscapes in aid of A.I.F. 22nd Battalion Comforts Fund in a show curated by Cecily Crozier (his niece) at Velasquez Gallery, Melbourne *1944, 12–28 September: Sedon Galleries, 107 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, reviewed by another War Artist, Harold Herbert'' The Argus'', 12 September 1944 His works now fetch modest prices at auction. Crozier died at Warrandyte on 22 October 1948.
References
Further reading
*''Encyclopedia of Australian Art'', Alan McLeod McCulloch, Hutchinson Ltd, London 1968External links
Frank Crozier
@ Design & Art Australia {{DEFAULTSORT:Crozier, Frank 1883 births 1948 deaths 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists Australian war artists Australian male painters Australian military personnel of World War I Artists from Melbourne Military personnel from Melbourne National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni