| George Bell | |
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Portrait of Australian official war artists, 1916-1918 by George Coates, 1920 George Bell is seated in front |
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| Born | George Frederick Henry Bell 1 December 1878 Kew, Victoria |
| Died | 23 October 1966 Toorak, Victoria |
| Occupation | Painter |
George Frederick Henry Bell (1 December 1878 — 23 October 1966) was an Australian painter.
He was born in Kew, Victoria, the son of George Bell, a public servant, and educated at Kew High School. He studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1895-1903.[1] and continued his studies in Paris and London in the early 1900s.
During World War I he worked first as a teacher and then in a munitions factory. From October 1918 to the end of 1919 he was an official war artist to the 4th Division of the Australian Imperial Force.[2]
Bell's major war painting concerning the Battle of Hamel: Dawn at Hamel 4 July 1918, was completed in Australia in 1921 and now hangs in the Australian War Memorial.[1][3]
The Ballarat Fine Art Gallery collection includes his work entitled The Conversation. One of his early formal paintings, The Conversation was painted when he was overseas and was first exhibited at the Modern Society of Portrait Painters in 1911.[4]
In 1932 he opened an art school in Melbourne, the Bourke Street Studio School.[1] Later that year he formed the Contemporary Group of Melbourne. In 1937 Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies attempted to establish the Australian Academy of Art, an Australian equivalent to the Royal Academy. Bell was the leading opponent of the plan and a spokesman for 'modern art', and pursued a prolonged public argument with Menzies, forming the Contemporary Art Society of which he became founding president.[5]
He was appointed O.B.E. in 1966. He died at his home at Toorak the same year, survived by his wife and daughter.
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