Francis Rossiter Crozier ( – 22 October 1948) was a war records artist who is represented in the

Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in wars involving the Commonwealth of Australia and some conflicts involving pe ...

's art collection along with other

Australian official war artists Australian official war artists are those who have been expressly employed by either the Australian War Memorial (AWM) or the Army Military History Section (or its antecedents). These artist soldiers depicted some aspect of war through art; this ...

such as H. Septimus Power, Arthur Streeton, George Washington Lambert and Ivor Hele.

Biography

Crozier studied at the

National Gallery of Victoria Art 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 ...

in 1907 and was a member of the

Charterisville Charterisville is the name given to a property in Ivanhoe, Victoria Australia closely associated with the Heidelberg School of Australian art. David Charteris McArthur, Melbourne's first banker (with the Bank of Australasia), sportsman (player i ...

artists' colony in

Heidelberg, Victoria Heidelberg is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, northeast of Melbourne's central business district, located within the City of Banyule local government area. Heidelberg recorded a population of 7,360 at the 2021 census. Once a large ...

somewhere between 1900 and 1910 with Amandus Julius Fischer, then with the group centred on

Clara Southern Clara Southern (3 October 1860 – 15 December 1940) was an Australian artist associated with the Heidelberg School, also known as Australian Impressionism. She was active between the years 1883 and her death in 1940. Physically, Southern was t ...

at nearby Warrandyte. He and

W. B. McInnes William Beckwith McInnes (18 May 1889 – 9 November 1939) was an Australian portrait painter, winner of the Archibald Prize seven times for his traditional style paintings. He was acting-director at the National Gallery of Victoria and an inst ...

held a private exhibition in Collins Street before leaving for Europe in 1912. Crozier was a soldier with the Australian Imperial Force after enlisting in March 1915 where he served in the 22nd Battalion in Egypt and on the

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

peninsula. Whilst at Gallipoli, he was approached (with other soldiers Ted Colles, Otho Hewitt, Cyril Leyshon and David Barker) by journalist

C. E. W. Bean Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean (18 November 1879 – 30 August 1968), usually identified as C. E. W. Bean, was Australia's official war correspondent, subsequently its official war historian, who wrote six volumes and edited the remaining six of ...

to help illustrate the "Anzac Book", a collection of short stories and illustrations for the troops. His artistic talent was noted by Bean, who had been given the role of official military historian and when official war artists were being commissioned by the Australian Government, Bean recommended Crozier be included in the scheme. Crozier served in France in 1917, notably in the area around Pozières but it was only in 1918 that he was made an official war artist. Where other war artists were civilians who were attached to the army and given honorary rank, Frank Crozier was already a serving soldier, and so his contributions were part of his military duties.

Exhibitions

Post-war Crozier appears to have made a living as a prolific painter of farm scenes and landscapes * 1928, 16–27 October: New Gallery, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne * 1940, August: War paintings and landscapes in aid of A.I.F. 22nd Battalion Comforts Fund in a show curated by Cecily Crozier (his niece) at

Velasquez Gallery Velasquez Gallery, also known as Velasquez Gallery at Tye's, and later Tye's Art Gallery, was a Melbourne art gallery that showed contemporary traditional, and later, modernist Australian art, including some sculpture and prints, as well as Austra ...

, Melbourne *1944, 12–28 September:

Sedon Galleries Sedon Galleries was a commercial art gallery in Melbourne, Australia, representing Australian traditional, impressionist and post-impressionist painting and prints. It operated from 1925 to 1959. Background The gallery's proprietor was William Ri ...

, 107 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, reviewed by another War Artist, Harold Herbert"Art Exhibition" by Harold Herbert
'' The Argus'', 12 September 1944 His works now fetch modest prices at auction. Crozier died at Warrandyte on 22 October 1948.

References

External links

Frank Crozier
@ Design & Art Australia {{DEFAULTSORT:Crozier, Frank 1883 births 1948 deaths 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists Australian war artists Australian male painters Australian military personnel of World War I Artists from Melbourne Military personnel from Melbourne National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni

Biography

Exhibitions

References

Further reading

External links