Leonard William French

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(8 October 1928 – 10 January 2017) was an Australian

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

, known principally for major

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

works. French was born in

Brunswick, Victoria Brunswick is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Merri-bek Local government areas of Victoria, local go ...

to a family of Cornish origin. His

creations include a series of panels in the cafe and foyer of the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, and a stained glass ceiling for the great hall at the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, which is one of the largest in the world. Another important piece of work French created was in seven panels, ''The Legend of

Sinbad the Sailor Sinbad the Sailor (; or Sindbad) is a fictional mariner and the hero of a Literary cycle, story-cycle. He is described as hailing from Baghdad during the early Abbasid Caliphate (8th and 9th centuries A.D.). In the course of seven voyages thr ...

'', in 1956. It hung in the Legend Cafe in Melbourne. In 1987, French completed a major commission for the Haileybury Chapel in Melbourne, including dozens of stained glass mosaic windows of varying shapes and sizes and a large

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

. In 2009, Earth Creations was hung in the St John's College Chapel (St. Lucia, Brisbane) by the UQ Art Museum installation team, two years after being commissione

The piece is a stacked triptych. French's work has been the subject of more than 40 solo exhibitions in Australia, and been part of many group exhibitions outside Australia. At the time of his death in early 2017, French resided in and painted in his studio in

Heathcote, Victoria Heathcote is a town in central Victoria, Australia, situated on the Northern Highway (Victoria), Northern Highway 110 kilometres north of Melbourne, Victoria, Melbourne and 40 kilometres south-east of Bendigo, Victoria, Bendigo via the McIvor Hi ...

. He was married three times, and had seven children and five grandchildren. A biography of French, ''The Boy from Brunswick: Leonard French'' by Reg MacDonald, was published by Australian Scholarly Publishing in November 2018.

Awards

French won the

Sulman Prize The Sir John Sulman Prize is one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, having been established in 1936. It is now held concurrently with the Archibald Prize, Australia's best-known art prize, and also with the Wynne Prize, at the Art Galler ...

in 1960 with ''The Burial'', and the

Blake Prize for Religious Art The Blake Prize, formerly the Blake Prize for Religious Art, is an Australian art prize awarded for art that explores spirituality. Since the inaugural prize in 1951, the prize was awarded annually from 1951 to 2015, and since 2016 has been a ...

in 1963 and in 1980. He was also awarded a

Harkness Fellowship The Harkness Fellowship (previously known as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship) is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several co ...

in 1965. In the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 1968, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

References

External links

BiographyLeonard French in National Gallery of AustraliaLeonard French at Australian ArtLeonard French, image of 'Tapestry' in the University of Ballarat collection
Leonard French Obituary

{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Leonard 1928 births 2017 deaths 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists Australian stained glass artists and manufacturers Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire 21st-century Australian painters 21st-century Australian male artists Blake Prize for Religious Art winners Australian male painters Artists from Melbourne People from Brunswick, Victoria Australian people of Cornish descent es:Leonard French#top