Ivor Hele

Sir Ivor Henry Thomas Hele, CBE (13 June 1912 – 2 December 1993) was an Australian artist noted for portraiture. He was Australia's longest serving war artist and completed more commissioned works than any other in the history of Australian art.

Hele was born in Edwardstown, South Australia, the youngest of four children of Arthur Hele and his wife Ethel May Hele, née Thomas, later moving to 13 Brown Street (now part of Morphett Street), Adelaide. He attended Westbourne Park Primary School for a short time, then Prince Alfred College, where at age eight he began art classes under James Ashton, the drawing master. In 1923 his painting "The Bedouin" was a prize winner at a London exhibition. In 1924 he started studies at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts under Miss M. Kelly and completed his first year with honours. He was awarded three first class certificates at the Royal Drawing Society's Art Exhibition in 1924, and Princess Louise's Prize at their exhibition the following year. In 1926 he was admitted to the South Australian Society of Arts, their youngest member. Apart from his art studies (three nights a week and on Saturdays), he had a normal boy's interest in sport, and satisfactory academic results.

In 1927, encouraged by his tutor Marie Tuck (1866–1947), the 15-year-old Ivor sailed to Europe, where he studied drawing and painting for six months at the academy run by Louis-François Biloul (1874–1947) in Paris, and another six months at the summer school run by Moritz Heymann () (1870–1937) at Reichersbeuern, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen in the Bavaria Alps. He returned to Australia early in 1930. He was to return to Paris and Bavaria three years later, as a married man.

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