Adrian Feint

Feint was born in Narrandera, New South Wales. He studied at Sydney Art School from 1911 under Julian Ashton and Elioth Gruner. Enlisting at age twenty one with the Australian Imperial Forces, Feint embarked for France on 17 September 1916 from Sydney aboard [https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2009316 HMAT Borda A30].{{Cite web|title=Adrian George Feint|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2009316|access-date=2021-05-18|website=www.awm.gov.au|language=en}} He served with the rank of Private with the 15th Australian Field Ambulance and on 8 September 1918 he was given an official Recommendation for his service. Before being demobbed in 1919, he was granted three months leave to study at the Académie Julien in Paris. He studied plate etching from 1922 to 1926; woodblock-engraving from 1926 to 1928, with assistance from Thea Proctor in 1927; and oil painting beginning in 1938, with Margaret Preston. That year he joined and exhibited with Robert Menzies' anti-modernist foundation, the Australian Academy of Art, of which Proctor and Preston were also members.{{Cite book |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-323428163 |title=Australian Academy of Art First Exhibition, April 8th-29th, Sydney : Catalogue |publisher=Australian Academy of Art |year=1938 |edition=1st |location=Sydney |language=en |access-date=2022-11-02}}

File:The Home Journal cover image.jpg

He was co-director (with bookbinder Wal Taylor) and manager of [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/116064184?searchTerm=adrian%20feint Grosvenor Gallery], 219 George Street Sydney, from 1924 to 1928. Exhibitors included the now-famous Thea Proctor, Elioth Gruner, Margaret Preston, Roland Wakelin, Roy De Maistre and George Washington Lambert.{{cite web |url=http://www.stoplaughing.com.au/bookplatesociety/images/stories/Bookplate%20Content/tnabs_newsletter%20no08_web.pdf |title=Adrian Feint (1894-1971), a short biography |access-date=2009-11-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014142333/http://www.stoplaughing.com.au/bookplatesociety/images/stories/Bookplate%20Content/tnabs_newsletter%20no08_web.pdf |archive-date=14 October 2008 |df=dmy-all }}

He was employed as assistant editor (to Sydney Ure Smith) of Art in Australia from 1928 to 1940, contributing many cover illustrations to this and filling many commissions for his advertising agency Smith and Julius. Between 1927 and 1939, Feint made 18 covers for Ure Smith's magazine The Home, including the famous illustration on the October 1928 issue in collaboration with Hera Roberts.{{cite book|title=Sydney Moderns – Art for a New World|year=2013|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|location=Sydney|isbn=9781741740905|page=110|editor=Deborah Edwards, Denise Mimmocchi}}

He abandoned graphic arts around 1939 (he reworked one bookplate in 1944) to work as a bookbinder with Benjamin Waite and to illustrate limited edition books.

In 1939 an exhibition of Feint's oil paintings and sketches at the Grosvenor Galleries introduced a new phase in his artistic career, from woodcuts and drawings to oils. A newspaper review of the time referred to the imaginative depiction of hibiscus and lantana, the overwhelming opulence of colour, "saved from coarseness by the exquisite delicacy of the textures".{{Cite web|title=23 Nov 1939 - Exquisite Flower Paintings.|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article17617831.txt|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-20|website=trove.nla.gov.au|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520035036/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article17617831.txt |archive-date=20 May 2021 }}

In the same year Feint was selected to paint a large mural for the Australian Pavilion at the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition in Wellington. Feint produced his design of Australian birds,{{Cite web|title=Pictorial souvenir of the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, 1939-1940|url=https://wellington.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/3432|access-date=2021-05-20|website=Wellington City Libraries}} accompanied by other prominent artists Frank Hinder, Douglas Annand, and William Dobell.

Feint's still life and landscapes, painted in the English decorative style, received critical acclaim through the 1940s and 1950s. This creativity was brought into focus with [https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1ocrdrt/SLNSW_ALMA21130066470002626 Adrian Feint: flower paintings], edited and published by Sydney Ure Smith in 1948. Galleries across Australia hold examples of Feint's work, including many still life [https://searchthecollection.nga.gov.au/object?uniqueId=47095 flower paintings] produced during these decades. The Art Gallery of New South Wales holds forty five of his works, including almost surreal paintings of flowers with hand-made objects. [https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/7001/#about Flowers in Sunlight] is such a work. A contemporary of Feint, the artist [https://www.portrait.gov.au/people/douglas-dundas-1900#:~:text=Douglas%20Dundas%20(1900%2D1981),show%20at%20the%20Macquarie%20Gallery Douglas Dundas] described his works as 'flower arrangements, meticulously designed, superbly painted, and set in a related environment of time and space'.

Feint's expertise in floral painting led to a camellia being named after him in 1952, [http://camelliasaustralia.com.au/the-man-behind-the-name-adrian-feint/ C. japonica 'Adrian Feint']. The large white striped semi-double was bred by Professor E. G. Waterhouse, and Feint's paintings can be found in titles authored by Waterhouse, [https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1ocrdrt/SLNSW_ALMA21124353860002626 Camellia Quest] and Camellia Trail.

Living and working in Sydney allowed Faint to explore the harbour and its surrounding foreshores. Apart from his interest in floral painting, Feint's work during the 1940s displayed his interest in the Australian coastal scene. [https://www.neram.com.au/artwork-details/483798 Afternoon Collaroy], 1940, allows the viewer to look through a finely depicted tree to the beach beyond; the waves rolling towards bathers walking across the sand. Add to this the sun hat and the beach towel casually draped over a railing sets the mood for this afternoon at  the beach. [https://www.neram.com.au/artwork-details/483806 The Jetties, Palm Beach], 1942, a scene viewed through intricately entwined branches and [https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/5547/ Elizabeth Bay, Sydney], 1942, quite likely painted from Feint's own residence in Elizabeth Bay, the suburb he would live in for the rest of his life. The playful [https://www.neram.com.au/artwork-details/483810 Tim and Pigeon], 1944, must surely also have been painted from Elizabeth Bay. [https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/collection-items/palm-beach Palm Beach], 1945, invites the viewer to an idyllic holiday scene through the depiction of protected ocean baths, tents, and caravans.

For artists in any field, a successful career required patrons and favourable social connections. Feint's star must have been in the ascendant for his portrait to be included in the work of photographer Alec Murray. His volume, [https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1ocrdrt/SLNSW_ALMA21108346930002626 The Alec Murray Album], showcases the elegant and the beautiful in their own private world.

By the end of World War II, Feint could justifiably lay claim to a number of titles; gallery director, bookplate designer, printmaker, illustrator, commercial artist, and painter. After downing his bookplate engraving tools, Feint turned his talents to a number of high-profile commercial projects.

The Orient Steam Navigation Company were re-fitting their ocean liner RMS Orion to resume service between Britain and Australia having served as an armed merchantman during the war. As reported in two local newspapers, “the Australian artist Mr Adrian Feint, of Elizabeth Bay, has been commissioned to paint the liner Orion's dining saloon decorations.”{{Cite news|date=1946-08-26|title=Painting Designs For Liner's Saloon|pages=11|work=Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248522464|access-date=2021-05-22}} Feint would paint two scenes for the saloon, a landscape and the other a seascape. The paintings, “which took two months to complete, will be flown to London and hung in the ship."{{Cite news|date=1946-10-02|title=Peace-Paint For Orion|pages=7|work=Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245534834|access-date=2021-05-22}}

One of the many activities planned for the tour of Australia by Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1954 was a Royal Gala Performance. Feint's design was “selected for the cover of the Royal Gala Performance”{{Cite news|date=1954-01-29|title=Royal Gala Programme|pages=9|work=Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248764244|access-date=2021-05-22}} at the Tivoli Theatre on 6 February. The eight page [https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1ocrdrt/SLNSW_ALMA21141941610002626 booklet] with its lyrebird cover was published by the Organising Committee for the Royal Gala Performance.

Feint's bookplates are regarded by many as his greatest legacy. Thea Proctor,{{Cite web|url=https://searchthecollection.nga.gov.au/object?uniqueId=102436|title = STC - Template}} Dorothea Mackellar, Ethel Turner, Ethel Curlewis,{{Cite web|url=https://searchthecollection.nga.gov.au/object?uniqueId=112338|title = STC - Template}} John Lane Mullins, Frank Clune, [https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=39516 Peter Tansey]{{Cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3916238|title = Bookplate for Peter Tansey, 1930 [picture]}} and the [https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/s8mhc3/SLNSW_ALMA2192690830002626 Duke and Duchess of York] were among those who commissioned personal ex libris plates.

In 1930 his bookplate designs were recognised by an exhibition at the Division of Fine Arts, Library of Congress, Washington US (organised by the [https://bookplate.org/ American Society of Bookplate Collectors and Designers]), and in 1933 were highlights of the first International Exhibition of Bookplates held in Sydney.

They are prized by collectors such as members of the American Society of Bookplate Collectors and Designers{{Cite web |title=American Society of Bookplate Collectors & Designers |url=https://bookplate.org/ |access-date=2023-03-08 |website=Bookplate.org |language=en-US}} and the New Australian Bookplate Collectors Society. According to the checklist compiled by [https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/s8mhc3/SLNSW_ALMA21117007680002626 Thelma Clune], he produced 221 commissioned bookplates. Apart from Norman Lindsay, the only other Australian artist whose bookplates command anywhere the same interest is [http://www.bookplatesociety.org.au/images/stories/Bookplate_Content/tnabsn_no16_web.pdf G. D. Perrottet].

At the time of his death in 1971, the Sydney Morning Herald described Feint as an artist “noted for his still life and flower pieces",{{Cite news|date=28 April 1971|title=Adrian Feint Dies|page=8|work=Sydney Morning Herald}} commenting that his works are shown in public and private galleries across Australia.

The 2009 publication [https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1ocrdrt/SLNSW_ALMA21133968070002626 Adrian Feint: Cornucopia], reveals a continuing interest in Feint's oil paintings and reasserts his contribution to Australian art.

File:Adrian Feint Bookplate-Tonys Book.jpg|alt=A red, yellow, and green image of a fish|"Tony's Book"

File:Adrian Feint Bookplate-David Robertson.jpg|alt=A black and white image of a window|David Robertson

File:Adrian Feint Bookplate-Bertram Norris.jpg|alt=A black and white image of shield|Bertram Norris

File:Adrian Feint Bookplate-MI Humphries.jpg|alt=A monochromatic brown image of a cherebum fountain|M. I. Humphries

File:Adrian Feint Bookplate-Dorothea MacKellar.jpg|alt=A monochromatic blue image of a centaur|Dorothea MacKellar

Feint was elected to the Society of Artists, and was a member of the Australian Painter-Etchers Society.

• [https://bookplate.org/ Bookplate Association International] first prize 1930 for [https://searchthecollection.nga.gov.au/object?uniqueId=112256 Raoul Lempriere] bookplate
• John Lane Mullins woodcut prize 1933
• George FitzPatrick 'Typical Australian woodcut' prize 1933{{cite web |url=http://www.evabreuerartdealer.com.au/feint.html |title=Adrian feint |website=www.evabreuerartdealer.com.au |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020530134021/http://www.evabreuerartdealer.com.au/feint.html |archive-date=30 May 2002 |url-status=dead}}
• His portrait, by Nora Heysen, hangs in the National Library, Canberra.

An extensive exhibition of his work, including many privately owned examples, was mounted between March and June 2018 at Carrick Hill, whose previous owner was a generous patron of Australian art, Feint being a particular friend. Exhibits included a collection of bookplates, and other material, donated by Richard King to the Carrick Hill Trust under the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.{{cite book|title=Inside the Cover: Patron and Painter — The Bookplates of Adrian Feint|date=March 2018 |publisher=Carrick Hill |author=Sonya Harris}}

• Adrian Feint: Flower Paintings, Sydney, Ure Smith, 1948
• Adrian Feint and His Bookplates John Gartner, Hawthorn Press, Melbourne 1940
• A Fine Line G Caban, 1983
• Art and Australia vol 9 no 2, 1971
• Encyclopedia of Australian Art Alan McCulloch, Hutchinson, London 1968
• Adrian Feint: Cornucopia, Kent Town, S. Aust. : Wakefield Press, 2009

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• [http://www.sscommons.org/openlibrary/welcome.html#3|search|6|UD20Library3A20William20Augustus20Brewer202E2E2E3A20adrian20feint2028in20Creator29|Filtered20Search|||type3D3626kw3Dadrian20feint7C31303026geoIds3D26clsIds3D26collTypes3D26id3D3737323934323126bDate3D26eDate3D26dExact3D26prGeoId3D Bookplates by Adrian Feint] in the University of Delaware Library's [http://www.lib.udel.edu/digital/index.php?id=gra0115 William Augustus Brewer Bookplate Collection]

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Category:1894 births

Category:1971 deaths

Category:Australian etchers

Category:Bookplate designers

Category:Artists from New South Wales

Category:20th-century Australian male artists

Category:20th-century Australian printmakers

Category:Julian Ashton Art School alumni

Category:Australian male painters

Category:20th-century Australian painters

Category:Australian modern painters