Arthur Boyd

Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd was born on the 20th of July 1920 and grew up in the open country of Murrumbeena, Melbourne. Arthur was born to William Merric Boyd and Doris Boyd who were both painters and potters. He had two brothers, David and Guy along with a sister Mary, in which each also painted or sculpted. Having grown up in an unorthodox Christian Scientist family, where all forms of creative attempts are enthusiastically encouraged, Arthur attended few night classes at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School. Predominantly though, he was taught by his family and especially by his grandfather Arthur Merric Boyd who lived at Rosebud, Victoria.

In 1936, at the age of 16, Arthur moved to the inner city of Rosebud to live with his grandfather until 1938. In 1937 Arthur held his first solo exhibition which was influenced by his contact with European refugees and could be seen throughout his artworks, which also saw a distinct period of representation of whimsical characters in urban settings. Later he created a tempera series called the Wimmera series which portrayed large areas of sky and land.

Wimmera Landscape Wimmera Landscape and Windmill

During 1939 Arthur and his brother David went on a painting trip around the north eastern open country of Victoria and painted many scenes at Launching Place on the Yarra River. However this trip was cut short as Arthur's grandfather became ill and later died July 1940.

In May 1941, shortly after he became a member of the Angry Penguins artistic and literary group he was conscripted into the army where he meet fellow Melbourne painter John Perceval, who soon after married his sister Mary. Originally stationed at Ballarat, he went to Balcombe on the Mornington Peninsula where he spent two months training as a machine gunner and was discharged from the army in March 1944. Afterwards he created a body of paintings showing his time spend in conscription which portrayed fear and cripples from the war.

The Gargoyles Cripple and Shadow

Arthur married his wife Yvonne Boyd nee Lennie in March 1945, who he had lived with prior to their marriage. Yvonne gave birth to their first daughter Polly a year after in 1946, son James in 1948 and to their second