Bryant, Charles

Charles Bryant, marine artist, was born on 11 May 1883 at Enmore, Sydney, At 9 he began art lessons with W. Lister Lister, a family friend, and first exhibited with the Art Society of New South Wales in 1900.

In 1908 Bryant to London, a pupil of John Hassall; later, while studying marine painting with Julius Olsson at St Ives, Cornwall, he became a close friend of (Sir) William Ashton. Exhibited with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Salon des Artists Français (Paris Salon), and the Walker Gallery, Liverpool; a member of the Royal Society of British Artists and an associate of the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists. Involved with Australian expatriates in London, he was an habitué of the Chelsea Arts Club, the Savage Club and the London Sketch Club.

In 1917 Bryant was appointed an official war artist and honorary lieutenant with the Australian Imperial Force. Many of his 69 paintings now in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, were 'studio' pictures such as 'First Convoy crossing the Indian Ocean, November 1914'.

He returned to Sydney 1922 and his exhibition of 70 pictures was opened on 16 November by Governor Sir Walter Davidson. The National Art Gallery of NSW paid 300 guineas for 'Landing the Catch' and 150 guineas for 'Low Tide at St Ives'. That year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Art Society of NSW and was a vice-president in 1929. Commissioned by the Commonwealth Government to paint a series of pictures of the Australian occupation of German New Guinea in 1921, and in 1925 by the NSW Government to depict the American fleet in Sydney Harbour for the president of the United States. In 1924-30 Bryant ran a colour-store in George Street while living at Manly, where he was a founder and committee-man of the Art Gallery and Historical Collection. About 1931 Bryant went to England and in 1933-34 was president of the London Sketch Club. On his return in 1936, he held one-man exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne. Represented in the State art galleries in Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne, in regional galleries, and in the Imperial War Museum, London.