Mornings at Randwick

Frank Prout Mahony (1862 - 1916)

Mahony was born in Melbourne and christened Francis, Mahony later adding Prout and generally signed his work Frank P. Mahony. The family moved to Sydney when he was 10 and he was first employed in an architect's office. He studied under Giulio Anivitti at the New South Wales Academy of Art and he came to prominence through his work on the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia. Two of his contributions, the spearing of Edmund Kennedy and E. J. Eyre's struggle along the coast with the faithful Wylie, became part of the legendary of Australian exploration. From the Centenary until Federation, Mahony was one of the best-known Australian artists and illustrators, specialising in horses. His oils included 'Rounding up a Straggler' (1889), which possibly influenced Tom Roberts, and 'The Cry of the Mothers' (1895); both were bought by the National Art Gallery of New South Wales. More significant was his black-and-white work contributed to such journals as the Sydney Mail, the Bulletin and the Australian Town and Country Journal. In 1893 he illustrated A. B. Paterson's poem The Geebung Polo Club. Mahony was a founding council member in 1895 of the breakaway Society of Artists, an instructor at the Art Society of New South Wales, and a member of the Dawn and Dusk Club. After his death at the Kensington Infirmary on 28 June 1916, a memorial to 'our first Australian born artist' was erected 'by Australian admirers' at Mahony's grave in Hanwell cemetery, Middlesex.

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