John Longstaff

Sir John Campbell Longstaff was an Australian painter, war artist and a five-time winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture. His cousin Will Longstaff was also a painter and war artist.

Longstaff was known for being fashionable and for being one of the most prolific portrait painters of the early 20th century.

Longstaff was born at Clunes, Victoria, second son of Ralph Longstaff, storekeeper and Janet (Jessie) Campbell. John was educated at a boarding school in Miners Rest and Clunes State School. He studied 1883-87 at the Melbourne National Gallery School where, despite his father's initial disapproval of his artistic ambitions, Longstaff's talent was recognised by George Folingsby.

He joined the inaugural meeting in May 1883 of the bohemian Buonarotti Club with Alexander Colquhoun, Fred M. Williams and Tom Humphrey. French painter Jules Lefebvre's controversial 1875 nude Chloé was being shown that month in Victoria's National Gallery, and the Sunday Observance League objected to the trustees' decision to open the exhibition on a Sunday. When it was covered with a black curtain, Longstaff, with eight other Gallery School students, two of whom were Buonarotti Club members Colquhoun and McCubbin, protested.

Longstaff was born at Clunes, Victoria, second son of Ralph Longstaff, storekeeper and Janet (Jessie) Campbell. John was educated at a boarding school in Miners Rest and Clunes State School. He studied 1883-87 at the Melbourne National Gallery School where, despite his father's initial disapproval of his artistic ambitions, Longstaff's talent was recognised by George Folingsby.

He joined the inaugural meeting in May 1883 of the bohemian Buonarotti Club with Alexander Colquhoun, Fred M. Williams and Tom Humphrey. French painter Jules Lefebvre's controversial 1875 nude Chloé was being shown that month in Victoria's National Gallery, and the Sunday Observance League objected to the trustees' decision to open the exhibition on a Sunday. When it was covered with a black curtain, Longstaff, with eight other Gallery School students, two of whom were Buonarotti Club members Colquhoun and McCubbin, protested.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023