Rockwall, Potts Point, Sydney, 1919 / Hardy Wilson

SV/210

fonds

1919

Graphic Materials, Prints

129603

1 print - 34 x 26.5 cm

In 1913 William Hardy Wilson (architect) entered practice with Neave in George Street, Sydney. Determined to make Australians as aware of their early colonial heritage as Americans had become of theirs, Wilson had begun to make drawings of colonial buildings in New South Wales and Tasmania: he 'looked at buildings with a painter's eye as much as an architect's', even noting the plants in their gardens. Finding Julian Ashton 'a beacon of hope in a city of indifference', Wilson exhibited regularly with the Society of Artists; with Ashton, Elioth Gruner and others, he founded the Fine Arts Society, a small commercial gallery. His work was to be included in the 1923 Exhibition of Australian Art at Burlington House, London.

Wilson's architectural commissions consisted almost entirely of houses and small commercial buildings: work at this scale best suited his talents. His admiration of early Australian architecture influenced the design of his houses: two of his best-known were built in Sydney's northern suburbs. The colonial house, Horsley, provided the source of his design for Eryldene, Gordon, completed in 1914 for E. G. Waterhouse. Similarly, Clarendon at Windsor was the model for his home, Purulia, Wahroonga, completed in 1916.

Wilson contributed to Art in Australia, the Home, Sydney Morning Herald and other journals.

Reference:
Australian Dictionary of Biography - February 2012

Forms part of MLMSS 1198

Copyright status:: In copyright - Life of creator plus 70 years
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Published in Old Colonial Architecture in N.S.W. / W. H. Wilson. Sydney : W. H. Wilson, 1924.

Pic.Acc. Upgrade Project - Information transferred from Pic.Acc.1137 as part of the eRecords Project 2011-2012

Titled at lower edge

Villas of Darlinghurst - State Library of New South Wales (28 January - 23 June, 2002)