Alastair Gray, Bourke Street, painting, 1940
Summary
Alastair Cameron Gray (1898–1972) was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, and arrived in Melbourne with his family as a teenager, in 1911. He served in the Great War from 1917 before studying architecture at the University of Melbourne on his return, in 1919, and then practising as an architect in Melbourne, Townsville (1934–36) and Sydney (1936–43).
Gray's artworks, which often include buildings, indicate his architectural interest and his drafting skill. He primarily worked in watercolour, having trained under notable Victorian watercolourist Harold Herbert, and was secretary of the Victorian Artists Society from 1956 to 1959, with which he regularly exhibited. Gray painted this Bourke Street scene in 1940. Unlike in many other central Melbourne depictions during this period, the city street is quiet – virtually unpeopled – giving more the impression of a sleepy colonial outpost than a bustling state capital.
