Charles Henry Lancaster was born in Melbourne in 1886 where he studied under Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery School. He married Eve Clara Watson, the daughter of John Henry Watson and Sarah Ellen Trotter on 24 February 1914 at the Holy Trinity Church, Thornbury, Victoria. They then came to Queensland where two daughters, Ailsa and Claire, were born. Lancaster first exhibited with the Queensland Art Society in 1914. His early career was in stained glass and he exhibited designs for windows in the Society’s annual exhibition in 1916. Lancaster was manager of the stained glass department of R. S. Exton and Co. for many years when William Bustard was the chief designer and gave lectures on its production to the Queensland Art Society on several occasions. He was a key figure in the Queensland Art Society (Royal from 1927), serving almost continuously on the committee from 1915 to 1952, acting as President from 1925 to 1927 and again from 1934 to 1935 and was also Vice-President on many occasions. Lancaster was also a member of the Royal Art Society of NSW and is known to have exhibited there at the least in 1924 and 1926.

Lancaster was awarded the Royal Queensland Art Society Jubilee Medal and the King George VI Coronation Medal in 1937 and a British Empire Medal for his contribution to the British Empire Exhibition, Glasgow in 1938. Lancaster, William Bustard, Stanhope Hobday and Mel Haysom were each commissioned to paint a mural for the new development of Tattersall’s Club, Brisbane in 1939. He was appointed a Trustee of the Queensland National Art Gallery from 1939, serving until his death 20 years later.

As an exhibiting artist Lancaster was one of the Society’s stalwarts contributing to the annual exhibitions for more than 40 years. He shared an exhibition (organised by Jeanettie Sheldon) with fellow Society members Rubery Bennett, William Bustard and L. J. Harvey in April 1923, and held solo exhibitions at the Moreton Gallery, Brisbane in 1950 and at Allan & Stark’s department store in Brisbane in 1955 and at Chermside in 1957. Lancaster was also included in the 1951 'Exhibition of Queensland Art’ at the Queensland Art Gallery and the exhibitions of 'Queensland Artists of Fame and Promise’ in 1952 and from 1957 to 1959.

Lancaster’s work was traditionally based and focused on the landscape of Brisbane and its outer suburbs but occasionally travelled to the Southport area in his search for suitable subjects. The depictions of which, according to a contemporary opinion, manifested a “quiet toned mellow serenity”(“Higher standard achieved”, unidentified press cutting, Brisbane, c. 23 Sept 1935) but his paintings of the city had a quiet modernist edge. Lancaster painter with fellow artists, Harry Cotterell, Wilson Cooper, Herbert Carstens, James Wieneke and Ralph Weppner from the late 1940s as the Marburg Grou

Research Curator, Queensland Heritage, Queensland Art Gallery

Writers:

Cooke, Glenn R.

Date written:

2008

Last updated:

2011