REGINALD W. STURGESS (1892 - 1932)

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Reginald Ward Sturgess was a highly respected early 20th century Australian watercolourist. Like fellow painter, J.J. Hilder, he was best known for his 
delicate misty watercolour paintings. Sturgess studied at the National Gallery School in Melbourne under Frederick McCubbin & Bernard Hall. Penleigh 
Boyd, Louis McCubbin, Percy Leason, W. B. McInnes, John Rowell and A. E. Newbury were among his fellow students. After joining the Victorian Art’s Society, he held his first solo exhibition in 1922, at the Athenaeum Gallery. Encouraged by the response, he then exhibited regularly, mostly at the Fine Art Society's gallery, Melbourne, but also in Adelaide (1926-27) and Sydney (1928-29). His works are represented in several State Galleries and provincial collections. He died prematurely in 1932, following complications from a car accident 6 years prior.