Lloyd Rees, the Sketchbooks

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Lloyd Frederic Rees
Brisbane 1895 - Hobart 1988

Lloyd Frederic Rees was born 17 March 1895 to Owen and Angéle Rees in Brisbane, Queensland, seventh of eight children. In 1910 he studied at Brisbane Technical College and was taught drawing by F. Martyn Roberts. He began exhibiting drawings with the Queensland Art Society 1912 and was a full time art student in 1915.

Lloyd Rees moved to Sydney 1917 at Sydney Ure Smith's request to join the commercial art studio of Smith and Julius. Ure Smith encouraged and commissioned him to draw Sydney architecture and landscapes. He travelled to London to meet his fiancée, the sculptor Daphne Mayo and visited Paris and Rome before returning to Australia at the end of 1924. His engagement to Daphne Mayo was broken off in 1925 and in 1926 Lloyd Rees married Dulcie Metcalfe who died in childbirth the following year. In 1931 he married Marjory Pollard and they had one son, Alan. There were further visits to Europe in 1953, 1959, 1966-67 and 1973. Lloyd Rees died in Hobart on 2 December 1988.

Lloyd Rees was a member of Society of Artists 1932, later Vice President then President and a Foundation member of Australian Academy of Art 1938. He taught drawing and painting, and lectured on art history at the School of Architecture, University of Sydney 1946-86 and was Dean there for a period in 1962. He was the Sydney representative for Felton Bequest 1949 and Chairman of the Australian Visual Arts Committee for UNESCO 1961-65.

His awards include honorary doctorates from University of Sydney 1970 and University of Tasmania 1984, Australian Internation Co-operation Art Award 1970 and CMG for services to art 1978. He was awarded an AC in the New Year's honours list 1985, Medaille de la Ville de Paris for services to art 1987 and was included in the Australian Bicentennial Authority's list Two hundred People who made Australia great 1988. His prizes include an award for drawing at the Paris International Exposition 1937, the Wynne Prize, Sydney 1950 and 1982, the Commonwealth Jubilee Art Prize 1957 and the McCaughey Prize 1971.

Lloyd Rees had numerous one man exhibitions, the first in 1918. These include retrospectives at Art Gallery of New South Wales 1942 and 1969; University Gallery, University of Melbourne 1981.In 1995 AGNSW staged a retrospective of his drawings to mark the centenary of his birth and an exhibition of his European sketchbooks in 2002. His work has been included in major surveys of Australian art since 1923 and he is represented in all public and many private collections throughout Australia.