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Robert
Emerson Curtis (1898-1996)
Robert
Emerson Curtis was born in Croydon, England, and migrated with his
family to Australia in 1914. While running the family orchard, he
developed his early interest in art by enrolling in a correspondence
course with the Press Art School in London. During the early 1920s
he worked in Brisbane.
In
1922 he went to America, where he specialised in architectural and
industrial commissions. While there, he studied at the Art Institute
of San Francisco and the Art Institute of Chicago and returned to
Australia in 1928 with his wife, Ruth, and their child. From 1941
to 1943 he worked with Douglas Annand and William Dobell as a camouflage
officer with the RAAF in New Guinea. The following two years were
spent as an official war artist, recording Australia's industrial
wartime production and VE Day in Canberra.
Curtis
painted portraits and landscapes but he is best known for his architectural
and industrial work. This included commissions to document the building
of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. His drawings
of both major landmarks were later published as books.
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