Allan H. Jordan
Allan Jordan with artwork at Swinburne College
Born1898
Elsternwick, Victoria
Died1982
Prahran, Victoria
Resting placeSpringvale Cemetery
EducationSwinburne Technical College
Known forPrintmaking
StyleArt Deco
Spouses
  • Elsie Male
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1925; died 1948)​
  • Nellie May Hale
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1960.; died 1967)​
ChildrenMarie Elspeth (Wright)
Parents
  • James Olver Jordan (father)
  • Maud Ethel (née Alleyne) (mother)

Allan Holder Jordan (1898-1982) was an Australian painter, designer, printmaker and teacher.

Early life

Allan Jordon was born in 1898 in Elsternwick, the son of Sandhurst-born customs agent James Oliver Jordan and Maud Ethel (née Alleyne) who married in 1897.

Living in Malvern, Jordan's interest at age sixteen was in amateur photography, on the subject of which he contributed three articles, with concise diagrams, to The Australasian Photo-Review, one in the 15 January 1916 edition about making "Photographic Bookplates,"[1] another on building a home darkroom in a bathroom,[2] and one instructing how to use a camera as a solar enlarger.[3] His photographs featured in the magazine, and he was also awarded prizes in the A P-R competitions.[4][5][6][7]

Career

Jordan studied at Swinburne Technical College from 1915–1919.[8]

Printmaker

Allan Jordan (1930s) Allan Jordan 5.2 x 6.8cm woodcut, Hamilton Gallery Collection

He worked mainly in woodcuts and wood engraving and was an influential teacher in printmaking and book arts in Australia. His oeuvre numbers sixty graphic prints, twenty designed and illustrated small books and seventy-one bookplates, as well as drawings, paintings, pastels and small mosaics, a body of work noted by Robert Littlewood "for its consistent quality of design and draftsmanship combined with the expert manner in which the works have been created."[9]

Littlewood identifies "three notable areas of interest in Jordan's creative effort: linocuts and colour woodcuts in the 1930s; book design and illustration in the 1940s; and bookplate design for two decades from 1939 until 1958."[9][10] Jordan exhibited in group shows through the 1930s, and less frequenlty in subsequent years.

Coin design

After complaints to the Federal Treasurer that some of Australia's coin designs were heraldically incorrect, action was taken in September 1946, when Prime Minister Chifley, while at Renmmark, was presented with a suggested lyrebird design by Jordan to replace the coat of arms displayed on the sixpence that was claimed to be obsolete. Chifley promised to consider the Jordan's design made in collaboration with Sydney V. Hagley of the Numismatic Society. Ultimately the design of the coin was unchanged.[11]

Allan Jordan bookplate for printer V S Hewett, production manager at Specialty Press, Melbourne, and member, Australian Ex Libris Society

Illustrator

Amongst his work are five wood engravings for Joseph O'Dwyer's The Turning Year 1944.[12][13] Other designs he created for Hawthorn Press, Melbourne in the 1940s included a series of paperback booklets printed on lesser-quality wartime paper and sold at 1 shilling and sixpence, which were written by Frank Clune, each dealing with some aspect of Australian history,[14][15] such as his 1944 Stories of Central Australia.[16][17]

Bookplates

Jordan joined artists Neville Barnett, Roy Davies, Adrian Feint, Lionel Lindsay and Philip Litchfield in a revival of the bookplate before World War Two.[18] His Ex Libris bookplates often employ intricate rebuses to characterise their owners,[19] and such is the case with that he created for World War Two hero Russell Francis Wright MBE (1920-2012).[9][20][21]

Jordan’s prints and paintings are in national and international collections.

Reception

Jordan's work in a 1931 group show was praised in The Age as "the most unique of the four contributors,"for his fifteen color and black prints from wood blocks" and picked out for "an outstanding print in black, Treasure Ship, admirably drawn and full of movement."[22] The Bulletin reviewing the same show reports that "Allan Jordan has been trying to capture some of the subtlety of Melbourne's winter atmosphere per the very difficult medium of the woodblock, and in The Changing Skyline, Exhibition Building and Winter Sunshine, Fitzroy Garden, has succeeded in nabbing some of the bolder contrasts."[23] Artist and critic Harold Herbert also prasied his work in that show, writing that "Mr. Jordan is an accomplished designer and an efficient craftsman."[24]

Of a joint exhibition he held in Melbourne in 1932 with Dorothy Lungley, the Age reviewed his linocuts, etchings and drypoints, describing the colour prints as "uniformly good in execution and conception, and from the purely decorative point of view, are in advance of most of the things we have seen lately produced by this process," but noted that while "the etchings are artistic in execution," they "might have been cleaner in line in some cases."[25]

Teaching

Swinburne Technical College, 1940

Jordan, after being a student, then influential teacher there,[26] was Head of the Swinburne Art School from 1957, retiring in 1959.[27][8][28] While senior art lecturer at Swinburne, Jordan wrote an article on "Linocuts' for the November 1934 issue of Manuscripts, which he illustrated with linocuts 'designed, cut and printed by students...'[29]

During his tenure the school grew from three small studios in which art studies, mostly craftwork, painting and wood carving, were taught by the then Director, Mr. Prior, himself a modeller. Enrolment grew to over 100 full day diploma students and a total of 300 with part time students at the time of Jordan's retirement.[8]

Personal life

Jordan lived in Deepene in the 1950s,[30] at Caversham Court, 763 Esplanade Mornington,[31] and in retirement with wife Nellie at Red Hill Road, Red Hill,[32] then at 23 Monaro Road Kooyong.[31] He first married Elsie (née Male) in 1923, who predeceased him on 21 March 1948.[33] He then married Nellie May (née Hale, born 1903) whose death was 29 Apr 1967,[32] well before his own on May 17, 1982 at the Alfred Hospital.[34][35] He was cremated at Springvale Cemetery, survived by his only child, a daughter from his marriage with Elsie; trained nurse Marie Elspeth Wright who had been educated at Fintona Girls' School.[34][36][30]

P. Neville Barnett remembered Jordan as "a genial character in a quiet, ingrained, good-natured way."[9]

Exhibitions

Illustrated books and illustrations in books

  • Julius John Lankes (1932), A woodcut manual, New York H. Holt and Company
  • O'Dwyer, Joseph (1944). The turning year. Melbourne: Hawthorn Press. OCLC 11066314.[56]
  • Clune, Frank (1944). The red heart: sagas of Centralia. Melbourne: The Hawthorn Press. OCLC 906327807.[57]
  • Turnbull, Clive (1946). Eureka: the story of Peter Lalor. Melbourne: Hawthorn Press. OCLC 37097809.[58]
  • Croll, Robert Henderson; Jordan, Allan, 1898-1982, (artist.); Hawthorn Press (1947), Umph the gargoyle, Hawthorn Press{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  • Gartner, John; Jordan, Allan; Hawthorn Press (1948), A noose for Ned...: reprint of a very rare pamphlet; with a foreword by Frank Clune, Hawthorn Press[59]
  • Platt, John (1948), Colour woodcuts: a book of reproductions and a handbook of method, Pitman & Sons
  • Chisholm, Alec H. (Alec Hugh); Rowan, Ellis, 1848-1922; Jordan, Allan (1949), News from nature: a selection of seasonal gossip, Georgian House{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)[60]
  • Henderson, Alexander (1953), A century in timber, J. Wright & Sons Pty. Ltd
  • Littlewood, Robert C. (Robert Clive); Jordan, Allan, 1898-1982, (artist.); Lytlewode Press, (publisher.) (2014), Ten bookplates by Allan Jordan, Lytlewode Press, ISBN 978-1-905611-60-7{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

Collections

  • The Graham Bookplate Collection; bookplates collected by David H Graham[61]
  • National Gallery of Australia[62]
  • National Gallery of Victoria[63]
  • Hamilton Art Gallery[64]
  • Benalla Art Gallery[65]
  • Swinburne University Art Collection[66]
  • Rijksmuseum[67]

References

  1. ↑ Jordan, Allan (15 January 1916). "Photographic Book-plates". Australasian Photo-Review. Baker and Rouse. 23 (1): 30–31.
  2. ↑ Jordan, Allan (15 August 1916). "A Photographic Darkroom". Australasian Photo-Review. Baker & Rouse. 23 (8): 432–3.
  3. ↑ Jordan, Allan (15 December 1915). Burke, Keast (ed.). "Daylight enlarging with a magazine camera". Australasian Photo-Review. Baker & Rouse. 22 (12): 670, 673.
  4. ↑ Burke, Keast, ed. (15 September 1915). "A. P-R. competitions". Australasian Photo-Review. Sydney: Baker & Rouse. 22 (9): 28, 35, 42.
  5. ↑ Jordan, Allan (15 May 1915). "A Rough Day, By Allan Jordan (16 years), Malvern, Vic.Awarded Fourth Prize in the May A.P.R. Competitions for Juniors". Australasian Photo-Review. 22 (5): Supplement.
  6. ↑ "An At-Home Portrait. By Allan Jordan, Malvern. Vic. Awarded Second Prize in the A.P-R. Competition for October". Australasian Photo-Review. 22 (10): 33. 15 October 1915.
  7. ↑ Jordan, Allan (15 July 1915). "A Misty Morn. By Allan Jordan. Malvern, Vic. Awarded Fourth Prize in the A.P-R. Competition for July". Australasian Photo-Review. 22 (7): 373.
  8. 1 2 3 Hames, Bernard (1960). "Interview with Allan Jordan (1960 Swinburne Jubilee Interviews 07 of 15)" (PDF).
  9. 1 2 3 4 Littlewood, Robert C (December 2014). "Bookplate stories: Russell Francis Wright" (PDF). The New Australian Bookplate Society: Collectors, Bibliophiles, Artists and Others Dedicated to Promoting Bookplates. 35: 4–5.
  10. ↑ Littlewood, Robert C; Jordan, Allan; Lytlewode Press (2014). Ten bookplates by Allan Jordan. ISBN 978-1-905611-59-1. OCLC 900070422.
  11. ↑ "Design of our coins: Change Suggested". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 July 1947. p. 2. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  12. ↑ "Books of the Day". The Age. 30 December 1944. p. 5. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  13. ↑ O'Dwyer, Joseph (1944). The turning year. Melbourne: Hawthorn Press. OCLC 11066314.
  14. ↑ "Books of the Day: Australian Adventures". The Age. 29 December 1945. p. 9. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  15. ↑ Clune, Frank; Gartner, John; Jordan, Allan; Hawthorn Press (1944). The red heart: sagas of Centralia. Melbourne: Hawthorn Press. OCLC 220322607.
  16. ↑ "Clune in Centralia". The Bulletin. 65 (3375): 3. 18 October 1944.
  17. ↑ "Central Australia". Western Mail. Perth. 28 December 1944. p. 27.
  18. ↑ Ferson, Mark (June 1988). "The Australian Bookplate Collector: A Vanishing Species?". Biblionews and Australian Notes & Queries. Book Collectors' Society of Australia. 13 (2): 36.
  19. ↑ Bidgood, Jeff; Ferson, Mark J; Book Collectors' Society of Australia (1994). Australian bookplates: an illustrated collection from members of the Book Collectors' Society of Australia. Sydney: The Society. ISBN 978-0-646-17489-1. OCLC 31982601.
  20. ↑ "Captain Russell Wright". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  21. ↑ Atkinson, Frances (27 November 2015). "Under the covers: bookplates offer a window into 'untold histories'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  22. 1 2 "Australian Artists: Work at the Fine Art Galleries". The Age. 3 November 1931. p. 5. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  23. 1 2 "The Palette". The Bulletin. 52 (2701): 18. 18 November 1931.
  24. 1 2 Herbert, Harold (14 November 1931). "Art: At the Fine Art Society's Gallery". The Australasian. p. 13. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  25. 1 2 "Art Notes: Color Prints And Etchings". The Age. 29 November 1932. p. 5. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  26. ↑ National Commercial Banking Corporation of Australia (1982). The seventies: Australian paintings and tapestries from the collection of National Australia Bank. Melbourne, Australia: The Bank. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-909873-34-9. OCLC 11599730.
  27. ↑ McCulloch, Alan; McCulloch, Susan; McCulloch Childs, Emily (2006). The new McCulloch's encyclopedia of Australian art. Fitzroy, Vic.; Carlton, Vic.: Aus Art Editions; in association with the Miegunyah Press. p. 561. ISBN 978-0-522-85317-9. OCLC 1135181250.
  28. ↑ "Fifty years at School". The Age. 21 August 1963. p. 15.
  29. ↑ Butler, Roger; National Gallery of Australia (2007). Printed images by Australian artists 1885-1955. Canberra, A.C.T.: National Gallery of Australia. ISBN 978-0-642-54204-5. OCLC 174104396.
  30. 1 2 "People, Parties: Three-stone ring". The Age. 30 April 1954. p. 7. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  31. 1 2 "Allan Holder Jordan". The Age. 30 August 1982. p. 16.
  32. 1 2 "Law Notices". The Age. 18 May 1967. p. 19.
  33. ↑ "Family Notices: Death". The Argus. 22 March 1948. p. 2.
  34. 1 2 "Obituary". The Age. 19 May 1982. p. 26.
  35. ↑ Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985
  36. ↑ "Engagements". The Age. 30 April 1954. p. 7.
  37. ↑ "Today's News". The Argus. 29 November 1932. p. 1.
  38. ↑ Herbert, Harold (10 December 1932). "Art: Colour Prints and Etchings". The Australasian. p. 19.
  39. ↑ Streeton, Arthur (29 November 1932). "Show Of Woodcuts: Charming Colour Prints". The Argus. p. 5. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  40. ↑ "Art Notes". The Age. 3 October 1933. p. 7. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  41. ↑ "The Arts And Crafts Society: Annual Exhibition". The Age. 16 October 1933. p. 5. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  42. ↑ "Putting Art Into Craft: Beautiful things at Exhibition". The Herald. 16 October 1933. p. 13. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  43. ↑ "Art Notes: Etchings on view". The Age. Melbourne. 18 September 1934. p. 7. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  44. ↑ Herbert, Harold (29 September 1934). "Art: Etchings". The Australasian. p. 16.
  45. ↑ McCubbin, Louis (17 October 1935). "Arts and Crafts: Lino cuts, etchings and posters". The Argus. p. 12. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  46. ↑ Burdett, Basil (25 September 1936). "Good and bad in Spring Art Exhibition". The Herald. p. 8. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  47. ↑ "Arts And Crafts Show Tomorrow". The Herald. 12 October 1938. p. 10.
  48. ↑ "Art exhibition at Hawthorn". The Age. 2 December 1943. p. 4. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  49. ↑ "Art Group Exhibits". The Age. 2 July 1946. p. 5.
  50. ↑ "Bread and Cheese". The Herald. 1 July 1946. p. 7. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  51. ↑ "What's On In Melbourne". The Herald. 9 July 1946. p. 10.
  52. ↑ McCulloch, Alan (2 July 1946). "Art Shows Reviewed: Social Success In Art: Bread And Cheese Club Art Group". The Argus. p. 6.
  53. ↑ "Club Show". The Age. 25 November 1947. p. 4.
  54. ↑ Durance Galleries (1974). Catalogue of exhibition of etchings and prints, 29th November-11th December, 1974 at Durance Galleries. Durance Galleries.
  55. ↑ Stephens, Andrew (6 June 2015). "A boy's own invention". The Age. p. 16.
  56. ↑ J.G.M. (7 March 1945). "Book Reviews: The Turning Year". Advocate. p. 10.
  57. ↑ "The Red Heart of Australia". Advocate. 20 September 1944. p. 10.
  58. ↑ Ebsworth, Rev. Walter (23 April 1947). "Early History of the Church in Victoria-No. 37: The Eureka Stockade and Bishop Goold". Advocate. p. 16.
  59. ↑ ""Such Is Life!" Said Edward Kelly". The Argus. 15 October 1949. p. 9.
  60. ↑ "News of nature here and in Britain". The Herald. 19 February 1949. p. 12.
  61. ↑ "ATL: Unpublished Collections". tiaki.natlib.govt.nz. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  62. ↑ National Gallery of Australia. (1993), "v: illustrations; 25 cm.", Annual report, Parliamentary paper (Australia. Parliament), Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, p. 19, ISSN 1323-5192, nla.obj-964885761, retrieved 22 March 2022 – via Trove
  63. ↑ "Allan Jordan works". National Gallery of Victoria Collections.
  64. ↑ "Allan Jordan". Hamilton Gallery. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  65. ↑ www.bibliopolis.com. "Parrots by Allan Jordan, Australian on Josef Lebovic Gallery". Josef Lebovic Gallery. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  66. ↑ Jervis, Sara; Buchholz (design), Peter (January 2013). The Swinburne Art Collection. Swinburne University of Technology. p. 15.
  67. ↑ "Ex libris van S.V. Hagley, Allan Jordan, 1908 - 1982". Rijksmuseum. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
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