Fred Leist

Frederick William Leist (21 August 1873 – 20 March 1945) was an Australian artist. During the First World War, he was an official war artist with Australian forces in Europe.

Leist studied at the Sydney Art School studying under Julian Ashton, from whom he learned plein air techniques.

In the 1890s, he began working as a black-and-white artist for The Bulletin and The Sydney Mail newspapers. After 1900, he also the Sydney representative for the Graphic magazine of London.

In 1917, Leist was appointed as an official war artist to serve with the Australian Imperial Force in France.

Leist completed numerous paintings during the war and after his war service contributed two large murals for the Australian Exhibition at the British Empire Exhibition held at Wembley in 1924. As a result of these works Leist popularity increased and he gained several commissions from the United States and toured the south west of America, including Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

Returning to Australia in 1926, Leist took up a position as the Head of Painting at the East Sydney Technical College.

Leist died at Mosman, Sydney in 1945. He was survived by his wife Ada.

Leist is represented in the Art Gallery of New South Wales with ten works as well a representations in several private collections. Many of his paintings as a war artist are in the collection of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Some of his portraits are in Parliament House, Canberra.

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