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Auschar Chauncy / England/Australia c.1836–77 / Portrait of Richard Edwards 1874 / Oil on canvas / 76 x 63.5cm (sight) / Purchased 2001 Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Auschar ChauncyPortrait of Richard Edwards 1874
Not Currently on Display
The subject of this portrait is Richard Edwards (c.1800s-1915) who was the Queensland Member of Parliament for Oxley between 1901–13. He was born in Montgomeryshire, North Wales and lived in New Zealand before marrying Elizabeth Gibson in Melbourne in 1867.
He opened a drapery store in Brisbane in partnership with James Chapman under the style of Edwards and Chapman (the firm eventually changed its name to Edwards and Lamb and traded into the 1960s). Edwards was involved with the sugar industry and acquired a large shareholding in the Telegraph Newspaper, of which he was a director for thirty years. He was a strong advocate for the White Australia Policy and was active in public and philanthropic endeavours.
Auschar Chauncy was born in Marylebone, London and studied at the Royal Academy School, London and later in Paris. He appears to have arrived in Australia in about 1864 as his name first appeared in Sydney directories from 1865, where he was listed as an artist. He was active in Sydney until he moved to Queensland in 1868, possibly at the instigation of his brother Hugh who was a mining surveyor and sharebroker at Gympie. He established studios at various addresses in Brisbane from 1869 to 1876 when he moved to Gympie, dying there a year later.