“I don’t have any detailed biographical material but I do have three small paintings that I think he painted. My father was a psychiatrist in Melbourne in the thirties, forties and early fifties. He specialised in child psychiatry. I know that he knew Mervyn and that Mervyn gave him some works. Dad might well have known him from the left wing art circles that he was part of. However, I think that Mervyn might well have been a patient at Mont Park mental hospital at some stage. When I was a child, we lived at Mont Park. My three paintings are filed away in my flat file but I have scans of them.” [Supplied by contributor Neil Phillips]

Mervyn also exhibited with the
Seven Watercolourists Society : [Australian Gallery File].
Other Authors
Seven Watercolourists Society
Contents
File holds the following annual exhibition catalogues:-
First (1931), [Second] (1932), Third [1933?] (2 copies), [Fifth], (1935).

Some artists exhibiting with the Society were :- Geoffrey R. Anderson, James F. Farrell, E. Bonaventure Heffernan, Harry E. Hudson, Dominic Leon, John A. Munro, Mervyn Officer, Rex Battarbee, John A. Gardiner, C. Dudley Wood, James D. McMahon, and by invitation W.H.A. Constable.

Files contain material such as art exhibition catalogues, invitations, press clippings, media releases and/or other ephemeral items relating to Australian artists and galleries, where there are more than three artists exhibiting at the one exhibition. Other material may be collected under individual artists in the Australian Art and Artists file.

Notes

A society based in Melbourne, Victoria. Their first annual exhibition was held in 1931. Alternative spellings of the Society’s name are :- 7 Water-colorists OR 7 Watercolourists.

[https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/32484979?keyword=%22Mervyn%20Officer%22]

Writers:

Neil_Phillips
Michael Bogle
Date written:
2021
Last updated:
2021