William Lister Lister Australia, 1859-1943
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About William Lister Lister
William Lister Lister was born in Manly, Sydney, in 1859. He moved to Yorkshire England in 1867 and studied art at Bedford, and then France for two years. He began his working life in the drawing office of the Fairfield Engineering Works and then moved to Glasgow where he joined the St Mungo Art Club and in 1876, at the age of 17, exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy. He returned to Sydney to live in 1888 and was President of Royal Art Society of N.S.W., from 1897-1941 as well as a member of the board of trustees, A.G.N.S.W., 1900-43. He exhibited with The British Empire Society of Artists, the Royal Society of Painters in Oils and the Royal Society of British Artists, London. He was celebrated in Australia mainly as a painter of large, shimmering seascapes and coastal vistas, and as a seven times winner of the Wynne Prize. He was killed in a street accident on 6 November 1943.
William Lister is one of the most prolific of the artists listed in our database, with the number of works offered for sale by auction since 1971 of 1,130, of which 781 (69%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $50,400 for Sydney Harbour, Overlooking Taylors Bay 1912 sold by Deutscher~Menzies in February 2006. This year 3 works have been offered for sale. Works by William Lister are held by the Art Gallery of NSW, National Gallery of Australia and a further three major public national galleries (see list below).
William Lister Lister is listed in the following standard biographical references:
- McCulloch, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch-Childs. The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 4th Edition, Aus Art Melbourne & The Miegunyah Press, 2006. Page 621
- Campbell, Jean. Australian Watercolour Painters: 1780 to the Present Day. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989. Page 336
- Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, an online resource for biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators.
- The Find New Zealand Artists web site: a database of artist names that directs researchers to the rich resources found in New Zealand's libraries, art society exhibition histories and published sources.
- Australian Prints + Printmaking, a database listing printmaking artists from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region based on the print collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
Artists' Resale Royalty
Could the second and subsequent works by this artist sold after June 9, 2010 for over $1,000 be liable for the Artists' Resale Royalty? More info…
No, ineligible. The artist has been deceased for more than 70 years.
The Australian Art Sales Digest is a database of over 610,000 works by more than 12,000 artists who are listed as having either lived or worked in Australia or New Zealand, and an additional 36,000 foreign and other artists, offered for sale by auction in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1970s to the present day.
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