21 facts about Leslie Wilkie

Leslie Andrew Alexander Wilkie (27 June 1878 – 4 September 1935) was an Australian artiste and the president of the South Australian Society of Arts from 1932 to 1934.

Wilkie was born at Royal Park, Melbourne, the son of David Wilkie and Mary Frances, née Rutherford. He was a grand-nephew of Sir David Wilkie. He was educated at Brunswick College and in 1896 entered the National Gallery of Victoria scholastic at Melbourne below Lindsay Bernard Hall.

Wilkie came first into statement in 1902 subsequent to he showed some certainly promising accomplish at the Victorian Artists’ Society exhibition. He went to Europe in 1904 for additional study, and after his compensation to Australia was appointed acting master of the drawing literary at Melbourne though Frederick McCubbin was upon leave. Wilkie was elected a believer of the council of the Victorian Artists Society, and after the inauguration of the Australian Art Association was its honorary secretary for three years. He was for several years, an illustrator on the staff of The Argus and The Australasian.

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In September 1926 he was appointed curator of the Art Gallery of South Australia at Adelaide and proved himself a most efficient and painstaking officer. In 1934 he united a University of Adelaide anthropological expedition to Central Australia where he painted portraits of Aborigines close Cooper Creek. The portraits were forward-looking exhibited at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Wilkie died in Adelaide on 4 September 1935 after an operation for appendicitis. He married Nani Tunnock, who died in 1930, and was survived by a daughter, Nora Wilkie (1874–1950), a noted artist. Andrew Wilkie (c. 1853–1948), director of the Melbourne Zoo 1923 to 1936, was an uncle.

Serle, Percival (1949). “Wilkie, Leslie Andrew”. Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.

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