Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/christopher-john-coveny

Birth Place

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Biography

painter, illustrator, etcher, cartoonist and barrister, was born in Sydney(?), NSW, on 3 August 1846, son of Robert Coveny (1809-1878, ADB 3) and Emma, née Tallon, from Cork, who had married in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, Sydney in 1839. They had four sons and six daughters all of whom inherited their mother’s artistic talents. Christopher qualified in law in London and became an associate of W.B. Dalley in Sydney. In 1875 he was appointed Classics Master at Bathurst Seminary and College, established by Bishop Quinn, from whence he sent satiric letters to his sister illustrated with pen and ink sketches. In 1877 he moved to Sydney as crown prosecutor. After his father died in 1878, Coveny worked solely as an artist and an art teacher at St Patrick’s College, Goulburn. He mainly produced watercolours and etchings, which he exhibited from 1881 with the RAS and the Art Society of NSW. His etching Eatanswill Election. The Nomination 1882 is in ML (SSV*/ART/1), along with many ink drawings. In 1883 he published in Sydney, Twenty Scenes from the Works of Dickens. Designed and etched by Christopher Coveny , which were much admired. A.E. Greenwood and H.W.H. Stephen in Catalogue (Descriptive and Critical) of the Art Gallery with Sydney Art Notes (Sydney, 1883) called him 'a caricaturist of great power’ and claimed that his copper etchings illustrative of Pickwick were 'almost worthy of Cruikshank himself’ (their only too obvious source). In 1884, at the Art Society of NSW, he exhibited a series of about a dozen sketches telling the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin in caricature, along with 'a number of eccentric sketches of Dickens’s characters’ (apparently the Pickwick ones). The Bulletin critic commented (19 July 1884, 16): 'They are grossly humorous, probably clever, but why did he choose such peculiar subjects?’ A tiny book of Pied Piper drawings of 1884, evidently a smaller version of the exhibited series, was purchased in 1998-99 by Jim Bain and donated to the NLA (MS9317). A pen and ink portrait of the piper from the series is illustrated in the National Library of Australia News September 1999, 22. Coveny’s original sketches for Tea , A Sly Pinch [ of Snuff ] etc. are in the SLNSW (DL V*ART 54A) along with 23 watercolours (V*ART 58) including varnish/sepia originals for Dickens’ Bleak House . An intricate set of ink drawings on a single page joking about the popularity of the Austrian Military Band, which visited Australia in February 1888, is also in the collection. Coveny died in Dublin on 14 May 1941. Writers: Kerr, Joan Date written: 1996 Last updated: 2007

Born

b. 3 August 1846

Summary

Painter, illustrator, etcher, cartoonist and barrister. From 1881 he exhibited with the Royal Art Society and the Art Society of New South Wales.

Gender

Male

Died

14-May-41

Age at death

95