Title

Mr. A.S. Broad.

Author

Author not identified.

Source

Observer (Adelaide)

Details

Supplement, 7 January 1899, page 3.

Publication date

7 January 1899

Type

Article

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Mr. A. S. BROAD
Mr Alfred Scott Broad is essentially a "South Australian artist," having been born and bred in the colony. A son of the late James Broad of Hanson Street, Adelaide, a man of keen political temperament and sterling character, whose unpublished poems and acrostics, &c., written in the midst of a busy and eventful life, were known to a wide circle of appreciative friends, he inherited from his father subtle mental endowment, which impelled him in the direction of art, while another son just as naturally gave expression to his portion of paternal inheritance through the channel of music, and still another son exhibited marked ability in the more prosaic direction of mechanical construction and invention. Mr Broad received the first part of his education from Mr Thomas Burgan, at present an Inspector on the School Board, who did much to encourage and develop his artistic instinct by giving him high class work to copy and encouraging him to exercise invention and ideality in illuminated and other work. Mr Broad looks back upon these as the happiest experiences of his boyhood, for the time devoted to this congenial labour, not only secured him an immunity from other and less congenial school work, but also helped to lay the seeds of artistic invention and perseverance, which have stood him in good stead in his subsequent connection with illustrated papers in this and other colonies. Later he was sent to Prince Alfred College where in his final year, he was "facile princeps," winning the head classical scholarship, and securing a flattering offer from the committee of the school to send him to the Melbourne University at their own expense, there being at that time no means of higher education in South Australia. A position in the Civil Service of the colony was just at this juncture offered him by the then Commissioner of Public Works - The Hon. John CARR - and after serious consideration he accepted the offer as a means to an end. The short hours of the Service gave him copious leisure for following his love for art, which had remained completely in abeyance while he was at the College save for the occasional caricatures and comic drawings he essayed and which were invariably rewarded with condign punishment on discovery. This faculty for producing caricature, which he had always been taught to regard as a very undesirable element in his artistic character, was destined to receive a big development at this time, for he became associated with the proprietors of the "Lantern" and "Portonian," and a small weekly called the "Figaro," and for these he worked assiduously for a considerable time, doing his work in the early morning and by night. He then gave up some of this work in order to take up study with Mr Mortimer MENPES and the late Charlie STROTHER, under the tuition of Mr HILL, late teacher of drawing at the North Terrace Institute. Here he did a little desultory work, going, however, for his more serious study to Nature herself. The three friends seized every available opportunity to get away together on sketching trips. This trio of earnest workers also took up the study of miniature painting on ivory and portraiture in watercolour, under tuition of the late Mr John HOOD, of Glenelg. Of all the influences, however, which helped to mould his artistic character Mr Broad attaches most importance to that of the work of the late Mr J.M. SKIPPER, which he was allowed to copy and study. Later on, being associated at the time with "Adelaide Punch," under the regime of Mr C.F. JOHNSON, he left the Civil Service, and after a year or two's work in the colony the depression which then prevailed induced the young and struggling artist to try "fresh fields and pastures new." He drifted to Melbourne, where in spite of great competition he immediately had his work in black-and-white accepted by the "Australasian Sketcher" and the "Illustrated Australian News", for which he continued to work as a "free lance" during the Adelaide Exhibition. At this time he also became associated with the "Illustrated Sydney News," the versatility of his gift procuring for him the offer of a permanent position at the head of its artistic staff. His connection with this paper only ceased on the amalgamation with the "Town and Country Journal." His work comprised of birds'-eye views of important towns, figure work, sea and landscape in wash drawings, and pen-and-ink work, architectural drawings, and coloured supplements of typical colonial subjects. This paper was amongst the first to use the zinco and copper process. Pictures of his were also published in the 'Picturesque Atlas," and in the oil and watercolour work he has found purchasers in the Earl of Kintore [Governor of South Australia from 1889-1895] and several prominent citizens in South Australia.

[Observer (Adelaide), Supplement, 7 January 1899, p.3.]

 

Last Updated

21 Sep 2020