William Macleod (1850 - 1929)

Colonial artist born 1850 in London arrived in Australia with his family who emigrated to join the gold rush in Victoria.

Macleod trained with the Sydney artist Edmund Thomas at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts and was known first, as William Macleod Anderson or James Anderson. He travelled widely and won a reputation as a painter of portraits and cattle, a designer of stained-glass windows, and as illustrator with journals such as the Sydney Mail, the Australian Town and Country Journal and Queensland Punch.

Macleod joined the Bulletin full time in 1886 in response to a plea from Archibald following the departure of W.H.Traill. They became joint owners in 1887, Macleod was the Bulletin’s managing director for the next forty years.

Macleod worked in a variety of art forms from stained glass to black-and-white drawing, oils, watercolour, engraving, lithography, clay modelling and sculpture. His strength was as an illustrator. In later life Macleod lived at Dunvegan, Mosman, where he painted, played bowls with zeal, and was a genial and kindly host.

His works are represented in a number of institutional collections such as, in the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Australia.