Walter Lacy Jardine ( 1884 - 1970)

Walter Lacy Jardine (1884-1970)

Jardine was a commercial artist, born at Macdonaldtown, Sydney.  At an early age he showed an aptitude for drawing and at about the age of 12 he was apprenticed to J. H. Leonard, newspaper artist. He also studied design, colour and drawing at J. S. Watkins’s commercial art classes. He joined the Australian Star as an illustrator and was soon asked to handle advertisements as well. For the next twenty years he worked on and off for the Star (Sun from 1910), achieving widespread recognition for his black-and-white illustrations.  From 1905 to 1917 he was in partnership with J. B. Jones in an advertising company. In 1908 Jardine visited England, Europe and the United States of America to study methods of advertising and illustration; he paid for the trip by working freelance in the U.S.A. In Sydney, Jones & Jardine (J. & J. Ltd, 1916-17) employed a staff of twenty artists and apprentices. 

Jardine moved to New York in 1923 and was soon successful. He illustrated magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Motor and the American Legion Magazine, and made advertisements for Durant Motors Inc., General Motors Corporation and the Packard Motor Car Co. His knowledge of typography and layout enabled him to extend his activities to include the design of booklets and campaign posters.  

He returned to Sydney in May 1928 and opened a studio in Margaret Street. As a freelance artist he numbered among his clients  Akubra hats, Arnott’s, Orient Steam Navigation Co, Toohey Ltd and Tooth & Co. Ltd, the Department of Defence and the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales.

In 1933 he published The Art of Walter Jardine. 

In retirement he continued to work and at the age of 80, designed a set of postage stamps commemorating George Bass and Matthew Flinders.