Vernon Lorimer b. 1889 Carlton North, Melbourne, Vic., North Carlton, Melbourne, Vic.

  • Artist (Printmaker) , (Painter) , (Industrial / Product Designer) , (Cartoonist / Illustrator)
Early 20th century Melbourne trained cartoonist, illustrator and commercial artist. Most of Lorimer's illustrative work was done for the NSW Bookstall Company.
Name
Vernon Lorimer
Birth date
c.1889
Birth place
Carlton North, Melbourne, Vic., North Carlton, Melbourne, Vic.
Birth note
Age given as 25 years 188 days on 25 February 1915.
Gender
Male
Roles
  • Artist (Printmaker)
  • Artist (Painter)
  • Artist (Industrial / Product Designer)
  • Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)
Residence
  • c.1915 Armadale, Melbourne, Vic.
Active Period
  • c.1908- c.1929
Languages
  • English
Is Indigenous
No
Initial Record Data Source
  • Black and white artists

cartoonist, illustrator and commercial artist, trained as an artist in Melbourne. The NGA holds his poster for the Melbourne 'Art Students Annual Bal Masque’ of July 1911, a hand-coloured line block of a student with palette and brush (ill. Butler p.11). He contributed to Lone Hand , e.g. 'After the show was over’ 1 August 1912, 322-23, and drew at least one cartoon for The Comic Australian , 'The Comic Australian Surfing Academy’ 20 January 1912. While serving in WWI he contributed to a servicemen’s anthology.

Most of Lorimer’s illustrative work, however, was done for the NSW Bookstall Company. He began illustrating their books in 1908; a second followed in 1913 and 11 known illustrated books appeared after the war, in 1919-25, with his busiest period being 1922-23 (ill. Mills, 36). The Triad (10 August 1923, p.40, quoted Mills p.34), reviewing some of the Bookstall’s publications, praised Percy Lindsay 's artwork but had reservations about Lorimer’s illustrations to a racing story, The Jumping Double , by Charles E. Sayers:

“The artist is a Mr. Vernon Lorimer, and we can’t like him as we like Percy. Mr. Lorimer’s illustrations have a newly-laundered and badly-pressed look, and the head of the horse facing page 151 would put a Chinese dragon to the blush [ill. Mills p.36].

“Mr. Lorimer’s peculiarities are intensified in his drawings for another new book, Mr. A. R. Falk’s negligible shocker. This time he experiments with sawn-off figures…”

Mills notes that Lorimer is caricatured from his own pen in the 1922 Rowlandson memorial volume (the NSW Bookstall’s publisher) as something of a hack and suggests he was forced to make a living as a commercial artist against his inclinations. For Art and Australia 1924-29 he did advertisements for the Commonwealth Bank. A linocut, 'The Surf Beach’ c.1923, edn 30, is listed in Lebovic & Warner’s Fifty Years (cat. 62, not ill.).

Writers:
Kerr, Joan
Date written:
1996
Last updated:
2007
associate of
Percy Lindsay
1870
Artist
child of
Ada Lorimer
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Charles E. Sayers
Non-Artist/Designer/Curator
associate of
Ted Colles
1887
Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)
associate of
Dorothy Wall
1894
Artist (Draughtsman), Artist (Painter), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)
Citations:
  • O'Sullivan, E. (Miss), (December 1916), Vernon Lorimer, artist and soldier, has just passed beyond the Great White Cloud..., (Obituary (n.b.: Lorimer was, in fact, only wounded) Place: Sydney, NSW : Bulletin)
  • World War I Personnel Records B2455, (Place: Canberra, ACT : National Archives of Australia)
  • (1915), Australian Imperial Force : Nominal Roll : 5th Infantry Brigade, 6th Field Ambulance - "A" Section, (Place: Canberra, ACT : Australian War Memorial, 03-31)
  • Ladd, Brian; with Krell, Alan, (1983), The artist & the city : travelling art exhibition 1983, (Place: Sydney, NSW : Art Gallery of New South Wales)
  • Mills, Carol, (1991), The New South Wales Bookstall As A Publisher, (Place: Canberra, ACT : Mulini Press)
  • Hanks, Elizabeth, (1982), Australian art and artists to 1950 : a bibliography based on the holdings of the State Library of Victoria., (Place: Melbourne, Vic : Library Council of Victoria)
  • McCulloch, Alan, (1984), Encyclopedia of Australian art, (Place: Melbourne, Vic : Hutchinson of Australia (2nd revised edition))
  • Lebovic, Josef; & Warner, Sandra, (1988), Fifty years of Australian printmaking : Sydney Long to Eric Thake, (Place: Paddington, NSW : Josef Lebovic Gallery)
  • Butler, Roger, (1993), Poster art in Australia : the streets as art galleries : walls sometimes speak, (Place: Canberra, ACT : National Gallery of Australia, p.11)