Harold Emanuel Freedman Australia, 1915-99

Harold Freedman was born in Caulfield, Victoria in 1915. He studied at Melbourne Technical College (RMIT) in 1929-35 and then worked as an illustrator and cartoonist in Melbourne. He was an official war artist in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1944-45 and after the war taught at RMIT from 1945 to 1967 and was a founder of the Melbourne Print Group in 1951. A painter, illustrator, cartoonist, printmaker he designed travel and destination posters and created a series of topographical Views of Melbourne for a book published in 1963. In 1973 he was appointed state artist for Victoria and in this position he created a large mural on the theme of transport for Spencer Street Railway Station (now removed). He established a state sponsored studio for young artists which taught the practices of murals and mosaics. He retained his position as state artist for Victoria until his death in 1999.

In our database, 19 works by Harold Freedman are listed as being offered for sale, the earliest in 1978, of which 13 (68%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $51,240 for Maintenance Work on a Beaufighter sold by Deutscher and Hackett in November 2018. No works have been offered for sale this year, and the last sale we have recorded for the artist was in 2022. Works by Harold Freedman are held by the Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Australia and a further five major public national galleries (see list below).