George James Coates
| George James Coates | |
|---|---|
| Born |
8 August 1869 South Melbourne, Victoria |
| Died | 27 July 1930 (aged 60) London, England |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Education |
Académie Julian National Gallery of Victoria Art School |
| Known for | portrait painter |
| Spouse(s) | Dora Meeson |
| Website | George Coates DAAO |
George James Coates (8 August 1869 – 27 July 1930) was an Australian painter.
Coates was born in Emerald Hill (now South Melbourne, Victoria), the son of John Coates, an artist-lithographer of English stock, and his wife Elizabeth, a daughter of Ephraim Irwin who came from Ireland. George Coates was educated at St James Grammar School, then at the age of 15 was apprenticed to a firm of glass-stainers, Messrs. Ferguson and Urie. He attended the North Melbourne school of design and then joined the evening classes at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in Melbourne under Frederick McCubbin. He could not, however, attend continuously. His father had died when he was eight years old and the boy was sometimes unable to afford the comparatively low fees. Though not tall he was beautifully formed, an excellent swimmer and a first-rate amateur boxer. Lionel Lindsay tells the story of how a trainer had suggested that he should give up art and take up a "man's work".
At the national gallery classes Coates won first prizes for drawing and for painting from the nude, and before the conclusion of his course opened a life class. Among the students associated with him were the Lindsay brothers, Max Meldrum and George Bell, all destined to become well known as artists. In 1896 he won the Melbourne national gallery travelling scholarship, and in 1897 went to Europe as did also a fellow competitor, Miss Dora Meeson, whom he was afterwards to marry. Coates entered Julien's classes and always felt that he had been fortunate in spending his student days in Paris at such a good period of French art, while Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Jean-Paul Laurens were still living. He met Miss Meeson again in Paris and they became engaged, but as his only income came from his scholarship their marriage had to be postponed. In 1900 Coates left Paris and took a studio in London. He obtained employment in supplying drawings for the Historian's History of the World, but after that ceased there was great difficulty in selling black and white work and portrait commissions were scarce. On 23 July 1903 Coates and Miss Meeson were married, her father having agreed to make the young couple an allowance of £100 a year. Augustus John owned a studio which he let to them at £50 a year, and a long struggle to obtain recognition followed. One early success was a portrait of Miss Jessica Strubelle, which gained an honourable mention at the salon of 1910 and is now in the Bendigo gallery; but Coates did not really come into notice until the 1912 Royal Academy exhibition where he had three important canvases hung, "Arthur Walker and his brother Harold", now at Melbourne, "Christine Silver", and "Mother and Child" now in the Adelaide gallery. The success of these pictures led to some commissions and the financial position became easier. The exhibition of the painting of the Walker brothers in 1913 at the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts led to his being elected an associate of that society, and full membership followed some years later. In 1913 Mrs Coates brought some of their pictures to Australia which were exhibited in Melbourne and Adelaide. However, Coates fell ill, and his wife had to abandon a proposed exhibition of his work at Sydney and returned with him to Europe where a holiday in Italy soon restored his health.
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