Leslie Andrew Alexander Wilkie (27 June 1878 – 4 September 1935) was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n artist, president of the Royal South Australian Society of Artists in 1932.

Early life

Wilkie was born at Royal Park

Royal Park, Melbourne

Royal Park is the largest of Melbourne's inner city parks . It is located north of the Melbourne Central Business District, Victoria, Australia, in the suburb of Parkville....

, Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, the son of David Wilkie and Mary Frances, née Rutherford. He was a grand-nephew of Sir David Wilkie

David Wilkie (artist)

Sir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter.- Early life :Wilkie was the son of the parish minister of Cults in Fife. He developed a love for art at an early age. In 1799, after he had attended school at Pitlessie, Kettle and Cupar, his father reluctantly agreed to his becoming a painter...

. He was educated at Brunswick College and in 1896 entered the National Gallery of Victoria

National Gallery of Victoria

The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...

 school at Melbourne under Lindsay Bernard Hall

Lindsay Bernard Hall

Lindsay Bernard Hall was an English-born Australian artist and art gallery director.Hall was born at Garston, Liverpool, England, the son of a broker of the same family as Captain Basil Hall, writer of books of travel. Hall was well educated and grew up in an atmosphere of culture...

.

Art career

Wilkie came first into notice in 1902 when he showed some very promising work at the Victorian Artists' Society exhibition. He went to Europe in 1904 for further study, and after his return to Australia was appointed acting master of the drawing school at Melbourne while Frederick McCubbin

Frederick McCubbin

Frederick McCubbin was an Australian painter who was prominent in the Heidelberg School, one of the more important periods in Australia's visual arts history....

 was on leave. Wilkie was elected a member of the council of the Victorian Artists Society

Victorian Artists Society

Victorian Artists Society established in 1856 in Melbourne, Australia promotes artistic education and exhibition in Australia. Fore-runner of the Victorian Academy of Arts, founded in 1870. In 1888 the Australian Artist's Association amalgamated with the Victorian Academy of Arts to form the...

, and after the foundation of the Australian Art Association

Australian Art Association

The Australian Art Association was founded in 1912 by John Mather, Frederick McCubbin, Max Meldrum and Walter Withers.Members included Rupert Bunny, William Dunn Knox and Leslie Wilkie....

 was its honorary secretary for three years. In September 1926 he was appointed curator of the Art Gallery of South Australia

Art Gallery of South Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia , located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace in Adelaide, is the premier visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of over 35,000 works of art, making it, after the National Gallery of Victoria, the largest state...

 at Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

 and proved himself a most efficient and painstaking officer. In 1934 he joined a University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide

The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...

 anthropological expedition to Central Australia

Central Australia

Central Australia/Alice Springs Region is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory. The term Central Australia is used to describe an area centred on Alice Springs in Australia. It is sometimes referred to as Centralia; likewise the people of the area are sometimes called Centralians...

 where painted portraits of Aborigines

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

near Cooper Creek. The portraits were later exhibited at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Wilkie died in Adelaide on 4 September 1935 after an operation for appendicitis. He married Nani Tunnock, who died in 1930, and was survived by a daughter.