Thomas Percy Eagles was born in England on 9 March 1900. There is no record of when he and his family migrated to Australia or of his early studies but apparently he took classes with Dattilo Rubbo at the Royal Art Society, Sydney and these classes were conducted by Rubbo for a period of 28 years. According to a report in 1949 by Professor C.G. Cooper, Eagles was banned from competing for the life drawing scholarship at the Royal Art Society after winning three years in a row. The report further confirmed his skill in life drawing:

'Percy Eagles is that comparatively rare phenomenon in Australian art a brilliant draftsman. . .

If one were to judge from the work of most Australian artists, one would conclude that Australia was a vast land of gum trees and blue skies, entirely uninhabited.

This picture by Percy Eagles of a naked woman is a fine piece of drawing. There is nothing saccharine about it. This is not a glamourised girl of incredible shapes and romanticised proportions, such as one sees in American magazines and films. There is nothing prurient about the drawing. It is a clean healthy recognition of what is the most obvious and, surely, not the least important beauty, the beauty of the human body.’

He produced lithographic posters for Warner Brothers film releases during his years in Sydney as well as contributing drawings to the Bulletin and Smith’s Weekly , according to former student Leonard Brown. Eagles came to Brisbane in 1934 when he joined the staff of the Sunday Truth and for many years provided a weekly pencil sketch of a prominent Brisbane identity for the paper’s 'Personality of the Week’ – presumably the sketches of Hubert Edward Brown and John Cooper in the Queensland Art Gallery Collection were included in the series.

Eagles worked for an advertising agency from 1960 and on 28 January 1964 was appointed to teach freehand drawing, light and shade drawing and hand lettering as part of the Diploma in Commercial Art program at the Central Technical College, Brisbane. According to one of his students, Mal Enright, he drew constantly and had a close connection with Eric Roberts who taught lettering at East Sydney Technical College. Further, according to Enright, Eagles “changed the whole paradigm of drawing for his students.” According to his students Eagles was a very private man but he was also a champion ballroom dancer.

He was a member of the Royal Queensland Art Society (1943-57) and of the Half Dozen Group of Artists (1947-55), exhibiting portraits and landscape paintings with these groups. During the years of World War II Eagles also produced portraits of service people. His landscape subjects were within easy reach of Brisbane and, according to contemporary reports, were colourful and competent. His work was included in the 1951 'Exhibition of Queensland Art’ at the Queensland Art Gallery and he exhibited occasionally in local prize competitions. He retired on 30 June 1966 and set up a small gallery, The Rumpus Room Art Gallery, in his Gaythorne home but, unfortunately, died early the following year. Subsequently a survey exhibition of his work, 'Autobiography of an artist’, was held at T.C. Beirne’s Gallery, Brisbane, 8-18 January 1968.

Research Curator, Queensland Heritage, Queensland Art Gallery

Writers:

Cooke, Glenn R.

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007