William Merric Boyd, known more as Merric Boyd (24 June 1888 – 9 September 1959), was an Australian artist, active as a
ceramicist
Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Whi ...
, sculptor, and extensive chronicling of his family and environs in pencil drawing. He held the fine mythic distinction of being the
father
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
of Australian
studio pottery
Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves.Emmanuel Cooper, ...
.
The
Boyd family of many generations includes painters, sculptors,
architects
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
and other arts professionals, commencing with Boyd's parents
Arthur Merric Boyd
Arthur Merric Boyd (19 March 1862 – 30 July 1940) was an Australian painter. He and his wife Emma Minnie (née à Beckett) established a lifestyle of being artists which many generations followed to create the popular image of the Boyd fami ...
and
Emma Minnie a'Beckett Boyd. Boyd's brothers were
Penleigh, a landscape artist, and
Martin Martin may refer to:
Places
* Martin City (disambiguation)
* Martin County (disambiguation)
* Martin Township (disambiguation)
Antarctica
* Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
* Port Martin, Adelie Land
* Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
Austral ...
, a writer. His sister Helen Read, a navy wife, enjoyed taking to painting late in life. He and his wife,
Doris, raised noted Australian artists, painters
Arthur
Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...
and
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
, and sculptor
Guy.Their eldest daughter Lucy's ceramic painting benefited greatly from her unique inheritance. Subsequent generations of Boyds are or have enjoyed their rightful approaches in the arts perceived around them.
Background
The second of five children of Arthur Merric Boyd (1862–1940) and Emma Minnie à Beckett (1858–1936), both established painters, Merric Boyd was born on 24 June 1888 in the
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
suburb of
St Kilda, in
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. Arthur Merric Boyd and family were supported financially by Merric's maternal grandmother Emma à Beckett. It was Emma's fortune, inherited from her father John Mills, an ex-convict who founded the Melbourne Brewery, that allowed their family to live ''comfortably''.
Boyd lived in
Sandringham Sandringham can refer to:
Places
* Sandringham, New South Wales, Australia
* Sandringham, Queensland, Australia
* Sandringham, Victoria, Australia
**Sandringham railway line
**Sandringham railway station
**Electoral district of Sandringham
* Sand ...
where he was educated at
Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to:
Australia
* Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
**Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia
China
* Haileybury International School, an international ...
until he was eight. The family moved permanently to the family farm at
Yarra Glen
Yarra Glen is a town in Victoria, Australia, 40 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Yarra Glen recorded a population of 3,012 at the .
History
The Ry ...
and Boyd attended Dookie Agricultural College with aspirations of turning his hand to farming; and then he considered entering the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
as a clergyman, spending time studying at
St John's Theological College, Melbourne
St John's Theological College, Melbourne was an Australian educational institution in Melbourne, established in 1906 and closed in 1919. It trained candidates for ordination in the Church of England in Australia.
History
The college took over bui ...
; later Martin Boyd's good available material for his
award-winning 1955 novel, ''
A Difficult Young Man
''A Difficult Young Man'' (1955) is a novel by Australian writer Martin Boyd. It is the second in the author's "Langton Tetralogy" (which comprises ''The Cardboard Crown'', ''A Difficult Young Man'', ''Outbreak of Love'' and ''When Blackbirds Sin ...
''.
Career
In 1908 at Archibald McNair's Burnley Pottery, Boyd enjoyed successfully
throwing
Throwing is an action which consists in accelerating a projectile and then releasing it so that it follows a ballistic trajectory, usually with the aim of impacting a remote target. This action is best characterized for animals with prehensile l ...
his first pot. Boyd established a studio workshop on his home property at
Murrumbeena
Murrumbeena is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 13 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government area. Murrumbeena recorded a population of 9,996 at the 2021 cen ...
and pottery kilns were established there in 1911 with the support of his family. He studied under
Bernard Hall and
Frederick McCubbin
Frederick McCubbin (25 February 1855 – 20 December 1917) was an Australian artist, art teacher and prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, McCubb ...
at the
National Gallery School
The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years.
It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery ...
and where he took up ceramics as a path to sculpture, but settled on pottery as his medium. He held his first exhibition of stoneware, fired in McNair Bros kiln, at the Centreway in Melbourne in 1912 and his second exhibition at Besant Lodge soon afterwards.
["Merric Boyd–Australian Potter", ''The Home : an Australian quarterly'', Vol. 2 No. 4, 1 December 1921, p.60]
In 1915 he married
Doris Lucy Eleanor Bloomfield Gough, a fellow student and painter and they settled at Murrumbeena in the house and its surround entitled "Open Country". Before enlisting for WW1, Boyd was employed by Hans Fyansch of the Australian Porcelain Works,
Yarraville
Yarraville is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Maribyrnong local government area. Yarraville recorded a population of 15,636 at the .
Yarraville i ...
.
Boyd joined the
Australian Flying Corps
The Australian Flying Corps (AFC) was the branch of the Australian Army responsible for operating aircraft during World War I, and the forerunner of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The AFC was established in 1912, though it was not until ...
but was discharged later in England before returning to Australia in September 1919. Before so he undertook six months training in pottery technique at
Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, Stoke-on-Trent,
and studying in the diploma under Dr. Mellor at Stoke Technical School, and kiln construction under Mr. S. T. Wilson, former President of the English Ceramic Society.
![Examples of Merric Boyd pottery in 1920 photographed by Pegg Clarke for](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Examples_of_Merric_Boyd_pottery_in_1920_photographed_by_Pegg_Clarke_for_%22The_Home%22.png)
Boyd's best works were produced between 1920 and 1930; mostly pieces for domestic use, often decorated by Doris, and some pottery sculptures. He and Doris often used Australian flora and fauna as decorative motifs, their concession to creating works that would most likely sell well.
The Boyd's Murrumbeena pottery was destroyed by fire in 1926.
Boyd worked commercially and was able to provide for his family as he and Doris raised painters
Arthur
Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...
and
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
, and sculptor
Guy and their two daughters Lucy and
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
. Mary, the youngest, married artists
John Perceval
John de Burgh Perceval AO (1 February 1923 – 15 October 2000) was a well-known Australian artist. Perceval was the last surviving member of a group known as the Angry Penguins who redefined Australian art in the 1940s. Other members include ...
, and later
Sidney Nolan
Sir Sidney Robert Nolan (22 April 191728 November 1992) was one of Australia's leading artists of the 20th century. Working in a wide variety of mediums, his oeuvre is among the most diverse and prolific in all of modern art. He is best known ...
.
Subject to
epileptic fits
An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...
and somewhat a recluse in his latter years with a strong interest in Christianity, Merric Boyd died at his home at Murrumbeena on 9 September 1959. His wife, Doris, died within the same dwelling alone nine months later.
See also
*
Boyd family
*
Australian art
Australian art is any art made in or about Australia, or by Australians overseas, from prehistoric times to the present. This includes Aboriginal, Colonial, Landscape, Atelier, early-twentieth-century painters, print makers, photographers, and ...
References
External links
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(William) Merric Boyd (1888–1959)Gravesite at Brighton General Cemetery (Vic)
Merric Boyd and the Boyd Family at Murrumbeena
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Merric
Australian ceramicists
1888 births
1959 deaths
Boyd family, Merric
20th-century ceramists
People educated at St John's Theological College, Melbourne
Artists from Melbourne
National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni