Ivor hele biography channel

Ivor Hele is Australia’s longest serving official war artist.

Ivor Hele, a child prodigy, was an academically trained figurative artist who excelled at portraiture.

Ivor Hele, a child prodigy, was an academically trained figurative artist who excelled at portraiture.

Claude Hotchin was born on 7 March at Quorn, South Australia.

Robert Campbell painted by Ivor Hele in Hele was an Australian artist noted for portraiture.

Ivor Hele has been an official war artist of two major wars and many campaigns.

Ivor Hele, Return of the Meteor jets, Kimpo, Korea (, oil on hardboard, x cm, AWM ART).

A talented young artist, in the 1920s and again in the early 1930s, Hele travelled to Europe, studying in Paris with Louis-Francois Biloul, and then in Munich with Moritz Heymann. Returning home to Adelaide, Hele taught life drawing classes at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts, but also steadily built a reputation as a superb draughtsman and figurative painter.

His work attracted the attention of Louis McCubbin, former official war artist of the First World War and Director of the National Gallery of South Australia. He also caught the keen eye of General Officer in Command of the 6th Division Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) Lieutenant General Thomas Blamey.

At the urging of Louis McCubbin, Hele enlisted with the 2nd AIF on 29 June 1940, allotted to the Intelligence Headquarters of the 2/48th Battalion.

This was with the hope he may soon be appointed