Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/nell-wilson

Birth Place

Flemington, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Biography

painter, commercial artist and art teacher, was born in Flemington, Victoria, second eldest of the eleven children of Richard Wilson, co-founder of Wilson Brothers Engineering in North Melbourne. After leaving Essendon High School in 1924, she studied art at Melbourne Technical College (1925-26) then worked with the Griffin Shave Advertising Service (now George Patterson Pty Ltd) before going to London in 1928. There she studied drawing and lithography at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and worked at Brockhurst Studios as a commercial artist. She returned to Melbourne in 1929 but was back at London in 1931 where she worked for Levers (Lintas) Pty Ltd and studied drawing, painting, lithography and etching at the Central School (1931-32) and painting and drawing at St Martin’s (1933-35). She exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1935 and 1936 and at the Royal Academy in 1936. The designer and film maker, Geoffrey Collings (widower of Dahl Collings ), remembers that Nell was much sought after as a commercial artist in London, reputedly able to command 100 guineas a drawing. She worked through advertising agencies, lived at Earls Court with another Australian commercial artist, Lyndon Miller, and took painting holidays in Spain. She returned to Sydney in 1937 by the overland route. In the mid-1930s Nell was married for a short period to the artist and cartoonist Strom Gould . She lived at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney. During the late 1930s-40s she was among Australia’s most sought-after commercial illustrators, one of the few professional women to travel regularly by aeroplane to clients and agencies in Melbourne and Sydney. These included Levers (Lintas), J. Walter Thompson, George Patterson, Paton Advertising Service and the Commonwealth Advertising Division. She produced advertisements for Trans Australian Airlines, Cadbury Chocolates, Pelaco, Lux, Shell, British Nylon Spinners, Government War Bonds and Mazda electric globes. During the war, Nell was retained by the Commonwealth Government to work on national campaigns for recruiting, war loans and rationing. In 1947-49 she did the artwork for the campaign opposing the nationalisation of Australian banks. She was sponsored to study in 1951-52 at the Art Students League in New York, where she also worked for J. Walter Thompson—for the Canadian firm in 1952. Then she moved to London (1952-55) and back to Sydney (1955-56) where she won the Australian Commercial and Industrial Artists Association bronze medal in 1956. In 1955 she was the first Australian to be admitted to the New York Society of Illustrators and in 1957 became a foundation fellow of the ACIAA. Nell’s advertising style was very emotive and is characterised by naturalistically rendered, almost photographic portraits, usually of women or children. Many of her advertisements appeared in the Australian Women’s Weekly in the 1940s. She also painted a mural on the wall of the home of Sir Harold White and her sister Elizabeth in Mugga Way, Canberra. In the mid 1960s she put her age back to about sixty to obtain a teaching position at East Sydney Technical College. She also taught art at a private school in Sydney. Just before she died, she moved to Melbourne. Some of her artwork survives with family members; that for Prestige Ltd advertisements is held by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. Writers: Ven, Anne-Marie Van De Date written: 1995 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1901

Summary

Nell Wilson was a painter, commercial artist and art teacher. She was one of the Australia's most sought-after commercial illustrators in the late 1930s-40s. Wilson made advertisements for Trans Australian Airlines, Cadbury Chocolates and Shell, amongst others.

Gender

Female

Died

1985

Age at death

84