Port scene [possibly New Guinea]

Place Oceania: New Guinea
Accession Number ART96873
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 17.6 x 21 cm
Object type Work on paper
Physical description watercolour and pen and ink on paper
Maker Rafty, Tony
Place made New Guinea
Date made undated
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Unlicensed copyright

Description

Depicts a port, with a house in the background and a small boat on the edge of the water, possibly drawn in New Guinea, during the Second World War. Born Anthony Raftopoulos, Tony Rafty (1915-2015) was largely self-taught and joined 'The Sun' in 1940 as a cartoonist. He enlisted with the Commonwealth Military Forces on 29 December 1941 and in early 1943 was invalided from the Northern Territory, where he had created drawings while a hospital patient in Darwin. Rafty was brought to the attention of Lieutenant Colonel Treloar, and a few months later transferred to the Military History Section in Melbourne. Here he was employed in connection with the production of the Services Annuals; the original drawings he produced for these are held in the Australian War Memorial’s Art collection. Although employed as an illustrator, Rafty was sent to New Guinea in early 1944. Rafty served as a war artist and journalist for the Australian Army, serving in New Guinea, Borneo and Singapore. He sketched the surrender of the Japanese in Singapore, and covered the release of POWs from prison camps, including Batu Lintang camp in Kuching, Sarawak.

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