Percy Stanhope Hobday was born in Brisbane on 17 December 1879 the only son of three children of James Mayall Hobday and his wife Henrietta Isabella née Arrall. His initial lessons in art were from his father who had received his training in England and who exhibited with the Queensland Art Society (QAS) 1899-1909. He enrolled at the Brisbane Technical College from 1896 where he studied under Richard Godfrey Rivers. Hobday worked in the photographic studio of fellow QAS member L.W.K. Wirth.

He exhibited with the QAS for 50 years from 1901, was joint President of the Society in 1918 and served continuously on the committee from 1922 to 1947, acting as Treasurer from 1923 to 1925, Vice President from 1926 to 1927, 1939 to 1944 and 1946 to 1947. Hobday also served as President of the Society in the years from 1928 to 1931. He was awarded the Coronation Medal and the RQAS Jubilee Medal in 1937 for his services to the Society and was also made a life member. He also served as President of the New Society of Artists, Brisbane in 1912, President of the Queensland Authors and Artists Association from 1931 (and later was made a life member) and was also involved with the Queensland Wattle League.

Hobday’s sisters, Augusta (1884-1961) and Gladys (later Powell, 1891-1938), were also involved with the QAS over many years. Percy and Augusta conducted a commercial art studio in Brisbane, the Hobday Art Studio, which was housed in the Celtic Buildings, George Street, and later at the Reserve Bank Chambers, 115 Queen Street. They also gave art lessons – Peter Abraham and Laurence Collinson were numbered among their students. The Hobdays also conducted art classes at the Brisbane Polytechnic School for many years. Hobday was visiting art master at the Brisbane Grammar School 1936-38. He also designed the first cover for the quarterly literary magazine Meanjin in 1940.

Hobday married Emily Florence Hingston, the only daughter of Thomas Hodnett Hingston and his wife Emily Sara Barrett, in 1935 (her brother was the artist Arthur James Hingston (1875-1912). Hobday died in Brisbane on 7 August 1951, and 16 years later, in 1967, the bequest of his wife Emily Florence Hobday provided for the establishment of 'The Hobday and Hingston Bursary’ at the Queensland Art Gallery.

The landscape was Hobday’s primary focus throughout his career. During the early 1930s Hobday experimented extensively with monotypes and included 27 in an exhibition of his monotypes and watercolours at the Academy Salon Gallery, Sydney in 1934. Hobday was represented in the 'Exhibition of Queensland art’ held at QAG in 1951 by a watercolour, Seaside symphony , and a monotype, Regatta (the latter was included in the Australian Collection of Art, Coronation Exhibition, London in 1937). Two years before his death he donated 49 monotypes to the Darnell Collection (now University Art Museum), University of Queensland.

Research Curator, Queensland Heritage, Queensland Art Gallery

Writers:

Cooke, Glenn R.

Date written:

2004

Last updated:

2008