Ernest Tiger deClosay Artist,
b July 27 1859 – d Aug 28 1936.
E T deClosay. Full name is “Ernest Henri Leopold Pierre De Closets D’errey” but he used the shortened anglicized name Ernest Tiger deClosay and often signed his work as E T deClosay, or Tiger, as the family knew him.
Ernest Tiger deClosay, a Mauritian born painter, etcher, and commercial artist who at age 41 came from India to New South Wales, Australia, on July 18 1900.
He was trained in oils and water colours. Orignally he studied in Paris at the Beaux Arts French Acadamy under such distinguished painters as Jerome, Bougereau, and Paul Galant, later becoming the first official artist in Bombay India. There he taught art and did some of his earlier work that includes oil paintings of oriental and classical subjects painted in the 1890s. He painted many Indian scenes and portraits and while in India he worked as a teacher, painter, etcher and commercial artist.
After the death of his parents he moved in 1900 from India and settled in Sydney, Australia where he set up house and a studio in Roslyn St. Darlinghurst, and met a local girl Evelyn Atcherley (a wood carver and seamstress) they married in July 1907, Tiger died in 1936 and Evelyn died in 1955, they had only one son Pierre Adrian born in Nov. 1909 and who in April 1951 married his second wife Marion Barrett. Pierre had no children. They all lived in Sydney. Although Tiger, was born in Port Louis Mauritius in July 1859 and his mother was a Mauritian, his parents had been married in Pondicherry, India where his father was a prominent engineer designing the Indian railway system. The family moved to Madras when Ernest was a child. His baptismal name was Ernest Henri Leopold de Closets, presumably anglicized to deClosay when he came to Australia from India.
Tiger was a designer of postcards as well as being a member of the Australian Painters Etchers Society, exhibiting at the third annual exhibition of the Society in Sydney in July 1923.He painted many nudes of which a lot ended up pasted to the walls of an unknown outback pub (long story), along with assorted landscapes, portraits and commercial work for church walls and ceilings. He also completed six full sets of travel cards and a portion of another set for the New South Wales Bookstall Co.s 'Art Series’. These included the 'Fairy Butterfly’ series and the series of postcards of state shields supported by women in classical robes. E T deClosay also completed a number of assorted works under the name 'Tiger’. He also dabbled violin making and his son Pierre professionally played the piano and organ.
Main source: Author, Ken Morrison, my wife is Marion Barrett’s niece, this is compiled from family records and history.
- Writers:
-
KenM
- Date written:
- 2017
- Last updated:
- 2017
