Robe

Watercolour painting of Robe, featuring the old Government House residence and inner harbour.

John Charles Goodchild (1898-1980) was born in London and in 1913 the family emigrated to South Australia where he took several jobs, including signwriting, producing many Bushell's Tea advertisements. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Medical Corps in 1917 and served on the Western Front with the 9th Field Ambulance, where his drawing skills were put to use in preparing informational posters.

On his return to Adelaide after the war he enrolled, with the support of the Returned Soldiers Scheme, at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts before returning to England to study printing at the London School of Arts and Crafts in 1921. Back in Adelaide to earn a living he became a commercial artist and taught etching at the School of Arts and Crafts. The Naracoorte Art Gallery holds more than 60 of his etchings.

This watercolour of Robe shows an idyllic seaside and holiday town on South Australia's Limestone Coast. Goodchild produced several posters for the South Australian Tourist Bureau in the 1930s during what is now known as the golden age of Australian travel posters.

Goodchild was a board-member of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery in South Australia for several terms, and was appointed to the board of trustees of the newly created National Gallery of South Australia in 1940. He was also principal of the School of Arts and Crafts and president of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts.

In March 1945 the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, commissioned him as an official war artist. On 2 September 1945 he was present at, and took a cine-film of, the signing of the Japanese surrender aboard the American battleship, Missouri, in Tokyo Bay.

This item is reproduced courtesy of the family of John Charles Goodchild. It may be printed or saved for research or study. Use for any other purpose requires written permission from the family of John Charles Goodchild. To request approval, complete the Quote for Copy/Permission form.