Title

FLANAGAN, John Richard

Author

Gibbney, H.J. and Smith, Ann G. (compilers & editors).

Source

Gibbney, H.J. and Smith, Ann G. (compilers & editors). A biographical register, 1788-1939. Canberra: Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1987.

Details

page 230.

Publication date

1987

Type

Biography

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

John Richard Flanagan

 

John Richard Flanagan was born in Sydney in 1895. He studied at the Royal Art Society School under Datillo Rubbo and worked closely with Norman Lindsay, occasionally taking his place as illustrator on The Bulletin.

Flanagan travelled to the USA in 1916 and quickly became one of the most highly paid illustrators working in that country. Although most of his work was produced for magazines, he also illustrated many books.

During the 1920s Flanagan began to produce more individual exhibition pieces that included drawings, large watercolours, etchings and lithographs.

Flanagan visited Sydney in 1927 and held an exhibition of 55 works at the Fine Arts Society Gallery. His work was well received and prints and watercolours were purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

By the late 1940s Flanagan’s style of drawing was no longer fashionable and he moved to Pennsylvania where he worked as a designer of stained glass.

He died in York, USA, in 1964, aged 70.

© Roger Butler, 1991.

Published in Australian Printmakers in America 1900 -1950, exhibition catalogue, Canberra:Australian National Gallery, 1991.

Last Updated

24 Sep 2020