JOHN ROWELL (1894 - 1973)

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John Nightingale Rowell was an influential Australian artist. Rowell studied extensively in Melbourne, Europe and America. At the National Gallery School, in 1912-17, under Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin he won several prizes. Rowell's first one-man exhibition was held in October 1917 in the Upper Athenaeum Hall; many more followed in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane. He won the Crouch prize (1927, 1937) and several other awards. He was represented in the 1923 Exhibition of Australian Art in London, and his 'Monarchs of the Soil' was selected for the Imperial Art Exhibition, London (1928). He exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (1936, 1938), and in Paris, Dublin and Glasgow, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London (1937), and member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, London. He was commissioned to paint the coronation of King George VI.

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