William Lister Lister (1859-1943), who was born in Sydney but taken to England as an eight-year-old, studied at the Bedford School of Art and in France before moving to Glasgow to study mechanical engineering at the College of Science and Mechanics. In that city he joined the St Mungo Art Club. Returning to Sydney in 1888, he became celebrated as a painter of large landscapes and coastal scenes. From 1898 until he died he was president of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales; from 1899 he was on the Board of Trustees of the National Art Gallery. In 1913, his painting of the site of Canberra won the government competition to depict the area; it is now in the collection of the National Library. A resident of Redan Street, Mosman, Lister won the Wynne Prize seven times before he died at the age of 83, as the result of having been hit by a taxi in Military Road.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
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