Percy Leason
| Percy Leason | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 23, 1889 Lillimur, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | September 11, 1959 (aged 70) Staten Island, New York City |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Education | National Gallery of Victoria Art School |
| Known for | Painting, Illustration, Cartooning |
| Notable work | Wiregrass cartoon series |
| Movement |
Victorian Artists Society Australian Tonalism |
| Spouse(s) | Isabel |
Percy Alexander Leason (23 February 1889 – 11 September 1959) was an Australian political cartoonist and artist who was a major figure in the Australian tonalist movement. As a painter and commercial artist his works span two continents.
Percy Leason was born in the remote wheat farm district in the town of Lillimur just outside Kaniva, Victoria, Australia in 1889. His father was a wheat farmer and his uncle James was proprietor of a saddle shop in Kaniva. His parents had expected he would carry on the family tradition of wheat farming or saddlery making. In his adolescent years he demonstrated an early interest in drawing. His earliest works of 1900 were landscapes, still life studies, and portraits of himself and his mother and father.
In 1906 he was apprenticed as a lithographer at Sands and McDougall Lithographers, in Melbourne. He soon transferred to the art department where he did illustrations for jam tin labels and department store advertisements. His first major illustration was a poster for Carlton Brewery in Melbourne of Sam Griffis, an itinerant miner, standing at a bar with a full pint. The caption of the poster "I allus has wan at Eleven", became a famous trademark for Foster beer.
During these years he studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School under the tutelage of Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin. Upon completing his apprenticeship he began a somewhat bohemian lifestyle and developed camaraderie with the Melbourne artists such as Jock (William) Frater, Hal Guye, Frank R. Crozier and others and associated himself with the Victorian Artists Society. Paintings of this period included life figures for the Shakespeare tercentenary and portraits of fellow artists Richard McCann and Harry McClellan.
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