FINEY, GEORGE (1895-1987)

“Bird Of Paradise” (c.1950)
oil on board
45 x 45cm
Signed upper right
*exhibited in New York, 1951
*private collection, Sydney
 
Finey was a respected New Zealand-born Australian artist and illustrator. He studied at Eltham School in Auckland and at the London Polytechnic. He is best known as a caricaturist having worked for 'Smith's Weekly' for most of its period of publication. In 1931 he became the only caricaturist to have an edition of 'Art in Australia' dedicated to his work. A frequent exhibitor in Sydney, Finey also showed his art in Melbourne (1937), New York (1951, 1963), Japan (1952) and London (1963). Caricatures, including those of composers and screen favourites such as Fred Astaire, comprised only part of his work; he also painted and sculpted Australian flora and landscapes in a modernist style. An exhibition of his art on musical themes, billing him as `the last of the great Bohemians’, opened at the Sydney Opera House in 1978.