English Gypsy
Medium: Oil on board
Size: 49x 59 cm
Date: 1914
Signed: Signed and dated George Bell 14, lower left
Provenance: Estate of the Artist

Biography:

George Fredrick Henry Bell OBE b.1878 d.1966
Artist, Educator, musician, Veteran

Bell studied at the National Gallery Of Victoria's School of Art under Bernard hall and Frederick Mc Cubbin prior to his sojourn overseas where he continued his art education in Europe and the UK. In 1915 he enlisted in the Australian forces as a war painter; most of his work at this time was concentrated on the aftermath of war and the devastated landscapes of Europe. After the war, Bell returned to Melbourne and started the George Bell School of Art which curriculum focused on academic modernist painting, notably french Post-Impressionism. Bell has been officially accredited as a major influence to many Australian painters like Russell Drysdale, Peter Perves-Smith and Sali Herman.