Eric Thake b. 1904

Also known as Eric Prentice Anchor Thake
  • Artist
Mid 20th century Melbourne surrealist graphic and commercial artist and illustrator, designer and painter.
Talk | Version history | Updated Oct. 19, 2011 | Created Jan. 1, 1996
Name
Eric Thake
Also known as Eric Prentice Anchor Thake
Birth date
1904
Death date
3 November 1982
Death place
Geelong, Victoria
Gender
Male
Roles
  • Artist
Residence
  • Geelong, Victoria
  • Melbourne, Victoria
Other Occupation
  • medical draughtsman
Active Period
  • 1918- 1970
Languages
  • English
Training
  • 1925- 1928 George Bell School, Melbourne, Victoria
  • c.1921- c.1922 National Gallery of Victoria School, Melbourne
Is Indigenous
No
Initial Record Data Source
  • Black and white artists

graphic and commercial artist and illustrator, designer and painter, was born in Auburn, Victoria on 8 June 1904. Apprenticed to a process-engraving firm in 1918 [McAuslan says to the firm of Patterson Shugg process engravers in 1925], he studied art at the National Gallery School, Melbourne in 1921 [McAuslan says 1922] and at the George Bell School (part-time) in 1925-28. He worked in advertising from 1926 to 1956, designing stamps, murals, newspaper ads and billboards.

Thake held his first exhibition of paintings and linocuts in 1927 (McCulloch says he had his first solo exhibition in 1947 at Georges Gallery, though he had begun exhibiting in 1927; McAuslan says he exhibited with Ethel Spowers and Dorrit Black in 1929). He belonged to the Melbourne Contemporary Group from 1923 and was a founding member of the Contemporary Art Society in 1939.

An early exponent of Surrealism in Australia, Thake shared the CAS prize with James Gleeson in 1941. That year he also began printing his own Christmas cards, a practice he continued for forty years, resulting in 35 linocuts (1941-75) and five lithographs (1976-80), e.g. An Opera House in Every Home 1972, linocut 13.8 × 21.2 cm (AGNSW, NGV, GAG, etc.). A complete set of the 40 cards was offered for auction by Deutscher-Menzies on 24 November 1999, lot 168 (all are listed).

Thake enlised in the RAAF in 1943. He worked as medical draughtsman until 1944 then was commissioned as an RAAF Historical Section War Artist (1944-45). From December 1944 to March 1945 he travelled up the east coast of Australia through Townsville to Papua and Dutch New Guinea and finally to Morotai. The results of this trip include Salvage Dump, Port Moresby May 1945 (AWM), inspired by the American aircraft dump at Jackson Field (”...the place needs a Paul Nash, Piper, Sutherland or an Eric Thake to do it justice. I’d like to have a studio out here for a few weeks”: diary entry, c.20 December 1944, AWM). From July to December 1945 he travelled from Adelaide to Darwin via Central Australia. From Darwin he made two excursions to Koepang on Timor. Works done at the time include Airstrip at night, Alice Springs August 1945, pencil and gouache (AWM), and Liberator Face November 1945 (AWM), the latter a plane metamorphosed into an insect.

The work he produced during this period was later distributed between state galleries and the RAAF. Thake’s works now in the AWM were presented by the RAAF in 1947. Later he compiled a diary of his travels using the letters he had written to his wife and children at the time. When hostilities ended, he went back to Darwin and to the Penfoei airstrip at Koepang on Timor where he produced a dignified and sympathetic series of portraits of weary, disillusioned Japanese prisoners employed clearing up the wreckage of their own planes. He also made scenes of ruined houses and fragmented landscapes in both Darwin and Timor.

According to Deutscher-Menzies catalogue entry (1 May 2002, lot 277, est. $300-500), the late Col. Aubrey Gibson, a NGV trustee, commissioned Eric Thake to produce three Christmas cards for him: Guide Lecturer…Arnold Shore and Girls 1953, Director – Phar Lap… 1954 (ill Artists and Cartoonists ) and “Mr Picasso! Gentlemen, you won’t find him here” 1956 (the lot on offer).

Back at Melbourne Thake worked as an industrial designer, illustrator and painter. He was commissioned to do backdrops for the Aboriginal display cases in the MoV. (Do they still exist?) He also worked as a medical draughtsman at the University of Melbourne. Did cover designs for Meanjin and continued to paint surrealist paintings. He was given a retrospective at the NGV in 1970. He died at Geelong on 3 November 1982.

MISSING WORK:

General ANU email 12/11/99: 'The Drill Hall Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition of the linocuts of Eric Thake in the University’s Art Collection. There is one linocut that has not yet been located, so I am requesting your help to find it.

Eric Thake (1904-1982)

“Ho Joe!” 1946

linocut on paper

58.5 cm x 38.5 cm

It is printed in black ink on cream paper, with a cream mount and black metal frame. It depicts a man carrying a spear and waving his arm in the air. It is signed in pencil and dated below the man’s feet. The back of the frame should have a sticker with the number 274 on it. The last location listing I have for it is: Biochemistry 1st floor reading room, dated 12.3.1990. If you have seen a picture fitting this description on campus, please contact me, or anyone at the Drill Hall Gallery. Bronwyn Campbell, Collections Officer, ANU Art Collection, 6249 2501 OR ext.5832’

Writers:
Kerr, Joan
Date written:
1996
Last updated:
2007
associate of
Dorrit Black
1891
Artist
associate of
Hal Missingham
1906
Artist (Photographer), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Painter)
associate of
James Gleeson
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Colonel Aubrey Gibson
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
George Frederick Henry Bell
1878
Artist (Draughtsman), Artist (Painter), Artist (Printmaker)
associate of
Nutter Buzacott
1905
Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Sheila Hawkins
1905
Artist (Industrial / Product Designer), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Jessie Mackintosh
1892
Artist (Photographer), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Herbert McClintock
1906
Artist (Industrial / Product Designer), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Painter)
associate of
Ethel Louise Spowers
1890
Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator), Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Painter)
Co-exhibitor
associate of
Melbourne Contemporary Group
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Contemporary Art Society (Vic)
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
'The Plume Hunter'
None
Courtesy of: Eva Breuer Art Dealer
Cloud Shadow on the Sand
Date
1967
Medium
Oil on canvas on board
24.2 x 17.6cm
'Self Portrait among the Anthills'
Date
1950
linocut?; Art Gallery of New South Wales
"Ho Joe!"
Date
1946
Collections
Contemporary Art Society exhibition
None
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Melbourne, Victoria
Melbourne Contemporary Group exhibition
None
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Melbourne, Victoria
(Linocuts of Eric Thake in the University's Art Collection)
1999
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT
In Relief: Australian Wood Engravings, Woodcuts and Linocuts
1997
Exhibition ()
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC
Prints and Patronage: The development of the Geelong Art Gallery's print collection: 1900-1996
1996
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Geelong Art Gallery, Geelong, Victoria
Surrealism: Revolution by Night
1993
Exhibition (exhibited at)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT (and touring)
Eric Thake: A personal retrospective
1981
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Ministry for the Arts Foyer Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
Eric Thake: Pubs & Bars
1976
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Geelong Art Gallery, Geelong, Victoria
(Retrospective)
1970
Exhibition (exhibited at)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria
Eric Thake: Linocuts, drawings, photographs
1968
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Newcastle City Art Gallery, Newcastle, New South Wales
(Solo exhibition)
1947
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Georges Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
(Group show with Ethel Spowers and Dorrit Black)
1929
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Melbourne, Victoria
(Paintings and linocuts)
1927
Exhibition (exhibited at)
Melbourne, Victoria
Recognitions
Commissioned as a RAAF Historical Section War Artist
Award
CAS prize
1941
Award
(with James Gleeson)
Citations:
  • Skinner, Dion H.; and Kroeger, John, (1968), Renniks Australian Artists, (Place: Adelaide, SA : Renniks)
  • (October 1976), Eric Thake: Pubs & Bars, (Place: Geelong, Victoria: Geelong Art Gallery)
  • (December 1968), Eric Thake: Linocuts, drawings, photographs, (Place: Newcastle, New South Wales: Newcastle City Art Gallery)
  • (January 1981), Eric Thake: A personal retrospective, (Place: Melbourne, Victoria: Ministry for the Arts Foyer Gallery)
  • Summons, Elizabeth (intro.), (1978), The Eric Thake Picture Book, (Place: Melbourne, Victoria: Gryphon Books)
  • Pinson, Peter, PhD thesis on Thake, (Place: Sydney, New South Wales: College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales)
  • McCulloch, Alan, (1984), Encyclopedia of Australian Art, (Place: Melbourne, Victoria: Hutchinson of Australia)
  • Macleod, Diane, (1996), People, Prints and Patronage: The development of the Geelong Art Gallery's print collection 1900-1996, (Place: Geelong, Victoria: Geelong Art Gallery)
  • McAuslan, Jean, (March 1983), 'Eric Thake 1904-82', (Place: Canberra, ACT: Journal of the Australian War Memorial 2, pp 20-23)
  • Grant, Kirsty, (1997), In Relief, (Place: Melbourne, Victoria: National Gallery of Victoria)
  • Croll, R.H., (1942), The Bookplates of Eric Thake, (Place: Melbourne, Victoria: Hawthorn Press)
  • Chapman, Christopher, (1993), Surrealism: Revolution by Night, (Place: Canberra, ACT: National Gallery of Australia, pp 263 ff)
  • (12 November 1982), 'A singular man of surreal vision', (Place: Melbourne, Victoria: Age, p 14)
  • (19 August 1972), 'A portrait of the artist', (Place: Melbourne Herald)