Jump to content

Percy Trompf: Difference between revisions

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→‎Career: additions and refs
Line 12: Line 12:


In May 1942 he enlisted in the [[Royal Australian Air Force]] and was commissioned as a pilot in June.<ref name="ADB" /> Trompf served mostly at [[Milne Bay]], Papua New Guinea, and worked as a camouflage officer.<ref name="ADB" /> He was demobilized in February 1948, with the rank of flying officer.<ref name="ADB" />
In May 1942 he enlisted in the [[Royal Australian Air Force]] and was commissioned as a pilot in June.<ref name="ADB" /> Trompf served mostly at [[Milne Bay]], Papua New Guinea, and worked as a camouflage officer.<ref name="ADB" /> He was demobilized in February 1948, with the rank of flying officer.<ref name="ADB" />

Poster design declined in the 1960s as magazines and travel institutions increasingly used cheaper photographic images rather than specially commissioned graphic illustrations for the sake of faster turn-around and more persuasive realism.<ref name=":1" />


==Reception==
==Reception==
Line 72: Line 74:
* {{Citation | author1=Trompf, Percy | author2=Trans-Australian Railway | title=To Western Australia by Trans-Australian Railway | publication-date=1940 | publisher=Trans-Australian Railway | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35273981 }}
* {{Citation | author1=Trompf, Percy | author2=Trans-Australian Railway | title=To Western Australia by Trans-Australian Railway | publication-date=1940 | publisher=Trans-Australian Railway | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35273981 }}
* {{Citation | author1=Trompf, Percy | author2=Blue Mountains (N.S.W.). Council | title=See for yourself ... : Blue Mountain Resorts - N.S.W | publication-date=1946 | publisher=[Katoomba?] [Blue Mountains County Council?] | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/218847669 }}
* {{Citation | author1=Trompf, Percy | author2=Blue Mountains (N.S.W.). Council | title=See for yourself ... : Blue Mountain Resorts - N.S.W | publication-date=1946 | publisher=[Katoomba?] [Blue Mountains County Council?] | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/218847669 }}



=== 1950s ===
=== 1950s ===
Line 100: Line 101:
*2008, March 5 - June 15; ''Bridging the Distance'', National Library of Australia
*2008, March 5 - June 15; ''Bridging the Distance'', National Library of Australia
*2007/8, December 13 - February 17; ''Pioneers of the Inland: Australia's Muslim Cameleers 1860s - 1930s'', National Library of Australia
*2007/8, December 13 - February 17; ''Pioneers of the Inland: Australia's Muslim Cameleers 1860s - 1930s'', National Library of Australia
*2003/04, 22 October - March; ''Tourism in Australia: an exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection,'' Sir Louis Matheson Library, [[Monash University]]<ref>{{Citation | author1=Overell, Richard | author2=Overell, Richard (curator) | title=Tourism in Australia: an exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection 22 October 2003 - March 2004 | publication-date=2003 | publisher=Monash University Library | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/228461138 | accessdate=30 January 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://repository.monash.edu/items/show/13317#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0|title=Tourism in Australia: an exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection 22 October 2003 - March 2004|website=repository.monash.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-30}}</ref>
*2003/04, 22 October - March; ''Tourism in Australia: an exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection,'' Sir Louis Matheson Library, [[Monash University]]<ref>{{Citation | author1=Overell, Richard | author2=Overell, Richard (curator) | title=Tourism in Australia: an exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection 22 October 2003 - March 2004 | publication-date=2003 | publisher=Monash University Library | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/228461138 | accessdate=30 January 2020 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://repository.monash.edu/items/show/13317#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0|title=Tourism in Australia: an exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection 22 October 2003 - March 2004|website=repository.monash.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-30}}</ref>
*2001, August 10 - October 22; ''All the rage: the poster in Victoria 1850-2000'', Keith Murdoch Gallery, State Library of Victoria
*2001, August 10 - October 22; ''All the rage: the poster in Victoria 1850-2000'', Keith Murdoch Gallery, State Library of Victoria
*1999/2000, November - March; ''Follow the Sun'', National Library of Australia
*1999/2000, November - March; ''Follow the Sun'', National Library of Australia
Line 107: Line 108:
* Art Gallery of New South Wales<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=trompf-percy|title=Works by Percy Trompf :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW|website=www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au|access-date=2020-01-30}}</ref>
* Art Gallery of New South Wales<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=trompf-percy|title=Works by Percy Trompf :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW|website=www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au|access-date=2020-01-30}}</ref>
* National Gallery of Australia<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/search.cfm?creirn=21948&order_select=1&view_select=4|title=NGA collection search results|website=artsearch.nga.gov.au|access-date=2020-01-30}}</ref>
* National Gallery of Australia<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/search.cfm?creirn=21948&order_select=1&view_select=4|title=NGA collection search results|website=artsearch.nga.gov.au|access-date=2020-01-30}}</ref>
*National Library of Australia<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/picture/result?q=exact_creator:%22Trompf%20Percy%201902%201964%22|title=Trove search results for 'exact_creator:"Trompf Percy 1902 1964"' - Pictures, photos, objects|website=Trove|language=en|access-date=2020-01-30}}</ref>


== Awards ==
== Awards ==

Revision as of 03:21, 30 January 2020

Australia lithograph, c.1929, designed by Percy Trompf

Percival Albert Trompf (1902-1964), was an Australian commercial artist, best known for his travel posters. Some of his most popular designs depicted historical events, including the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.[1]

Early life

Percival Albert Trompf was born on 30 May 1902 in Beaufort, Victoria, the ninth child of Henry Alexander Trompf, a fruiterer, and his wife Catherine Amelia, née Elliott.[2] His family later moved to Ballarat, and he was educated at Sebastopol Primary School before becoming one of the earliest students at the Ballarat School of Mines' Ballarat Technical Art School where he left with his certificate in 1917.[2][3]

Career

In 1923, Trompf began designing confectionery boxes and wrappings for Giles & Richards, a Melbourne firm of commercial artists,[2]before setting up his own studio in Little Collins Street, painting and designing thousands of advertising posters, usually of 25 ins by 40 ins (64 cm by 102 cm) format, and 24-sheet advertising hoardings, for which Trompf supervised all stages of production, including the lithographic printing.

By 1933 Trompf was well-known as a poster artist and clients included Bryant & May, Palmolive, the magazine Walkabout, the Australian National Travel Association, the Victorian Railways[2] and the Canadian Pacific Railway.[4]

In May 1942 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and was commissioned as a pilot in June.[2] Trompf served mostly at Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, and worked as a camouflage officer.[2] He was demobilized in February 1948, with the rank of flying officer.[2]

Poster design declined in the 1960s as magazines and travel institutions increasingly used cheaper photographic images rather than specially commissioned graphic illustrations for the sake of faster turn-around and more persuasive realism.[5]

Reception

The colour lithography that Trompf used produced bold, simplified realism in an Art Deco style, with wide appeal, especially during the Great Depression. They promoted the simple joys of sun-worship, surfing and bushwalking, which were both then becoming popular alongside a general interest in bodily fitness then pervasive with the young,[6] famously celebrated in Trompf's best-known poster simply titled Australia.[7]

In recent evaluations, Dann[8] and Barnes[9] tourism marketing professionals including Trompf created a visual language of modernity, promotion and consumerism. Barnes cites Trompf’s Commonwealth Railway poster as applying an American aesthetic in depicting Central Australia in which North American pueblos are replaced with Australian indigenous ‘Arunta' men and juxtaposed modern, white, explorers-cum-tourists with 'primitive natives’ men each in formulaic groupings, positions and postures; the colonial figures and their vehicles given centre and stage right to symbolise the future while Aboriginal men are diminished in scale and backgrounded to represent their servility and symbolic position in the past.

The nostalgic attractiveness and historical interest of Trompf's posters endure; they have become national treasures[6] and they fetch up to $A12,000 at auction.[10][11]

Personal life

On 14 May 1932, Trompf married Vera Johns at the Methodist Church, Armadale, Victoria, Melbourne, and they had two daughters.[2][2] His nephew (b.1940) was religious historian Professor Garry W. Trompf.[12]

Trompf died of a renal infection on 17 July 1964 in Heidelberg, Melbourne.[2]

Works

1920s

  • Trompf, Percy; Victorian Railways (1920), The holiday spirit, Mt. Buffalo National Park, Victorian Railways
  • Trompf, Percy; Victorian Railways (issuing body.) (1923), Take a day at the seaside : go down by train!, [Victorian Railways]
  • Trompf, Percy; Victorian Railways; F.W. Niven Pty. Ltd, (printer.) (1924), See the Better Farming Train
  • Trompf, Percy; Victorian Railways (1924), See the better farming train : a wonderful exhibition accompanied by experts to help the farmer and lady demonstrators in household affairs to assist the farmer's wife : increased production, reduced costs, farm efficiency, improved stock, Victorian Railways, Australia
  • Trompf, Percy; Victorian Railways (issuing body.); Robert Harding Pty Ltd (printer.) (1924), Visit Mt. Buffalo National Park this summer, [Victorian Railways]
  • Trompf, Percy; Australian Railways Commissioners (1928), Australia calls you : settler, investor or tourist, Australian Railways Commissioners
  • Trompf, Percy; Orient Line Steam Navigation Company (1929), Australia, Orient Line 20,000 ton ships, Orient Line
  • Trompf, Percy; Australian National Travel Association (1929), The Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay 1770, Australia, Australian National Travel Association
  • Trompf, Percy; Australian National Travel Association (issuing body.) (1929), Australia : particulars at shipping and travel agencies, Melbourne Troedel & Cooper Pty. Ltd

1930s

1940s

1950s

Posthumous

Exhibitions

  • 2017, July 14 - October 15; Brave new world, National Gallery of Victoria
  • 2012/13, December 12 - July 7; Treasures Gallery, National Library of Australia, 12 December 2012 - 7 July 2013
  • 2008, March 5 - June 15; Bridging the Distance, National Library of Australia
  • 2007/8, December 13 - February 17; Pioneers of the Inland: Australia's Muslim Cameleers 1860s - 1930s, National Library of Australia
  • 2003/04, 22 October - March; Tourism in Australia: an exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection, Sir Louis Matheson Library, Monash University[13][5]
  • 2001, August 10 - October 22; All the rage: the poster in Victoria 1850-2000, Keith Murdoch Gallery, State Library of Victoria
  • 1999/2000, November - March; Follow the Sun, National Library of Australia

Collections

  • Art Gallery of New South Wales[14]
  • National Gallery of Australia[15]
  • National Library of Australia[16]

Awards

  • 1930s: First prize, annual industrial poster competition, Royal Society of Arts, London
  • 1934: Ideal Label Contest
  • 1946: First prize (£100) in the Blue Mountains Council's nation-wide competition

References

  1. ^ "Take a trip into the past: rare Australian vintage travel posters – in pictures". The Guardian. 14 November 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Spearritt, Katie; Spearritt, Peter. "Trompf, Percival Albert (Percy) (1902–1964)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Percival Albert TROMPF (1902-1964)". Federation University. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  4. ^ Trompf, Percy (1930), Banff : Canadian Pacific Railway, J.E. Hackett, print, retrieved 30 January 2020
  5. ^ a b "Tourism in Australia: an exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection 22 October 2003 - March 2004". repository.monash.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  6. ^ a b Booth, Douglas (2001), Australian beach cultures : the history of sun, sand, and surf, Frank Cass, ISBN 978-0-7146-5167-5
  7. ^ Kerr, Rosemary (2019), Roads, tourism and cultural history : on the road in Australia, Channel View Publications, ISBN 978-1-84541-668-3
  8. ^ Dann, Graham (1996), The language of tourism : a sociolinguistic perspective, CAB International, ISBN 978-0-85198-999-0
  9. ^ Barnes, Jillian E., ‘Resisting the captured image: how Gwoja Tjungurrayi, ʻOne Pound Jimmyʼ, escaped the ʻStone Age.ʼ’​ In Hannah, Mark, (editor.); Macfarlane, Ingereth, (editor.); ANU E Press (2007), Transgressions : critical Australian indigenous histories, ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Incorporated, ISBN 978-1-921313-43-1 {{citation}}: |author1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ "Percy Trompf Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Percy Trompf Art Value Price Guide". www.invaluable.com. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  11. ^ www.bibliopolis.com. "Percy Trompf at Joseph Lebovic Gallery". Josef Lebovic Gallery. Retrieved 2020-01-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ "Emeritus Professor Garry W. Trompf | Religious History Association". Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  13. ^ Overell, Richard; Overell, Richard (curator) (2003), Tourism in Australia: an exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection 22 October 2003 - March 2004, Monash University Library, retrieved 30 January 2020
  14. ^ "Works by Percy Trompf :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW". www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  15. ^ "NGA collection search results". artsearch.nga.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  16. ^ "Trove search results for 'exact_creator:"Trompf Percy 1902 1964"' - Pictures, photos, objects". Trove. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Percy_Trompf&oldid=938267671"