Artist's Biography
Albert Sherman was born in Truro, Cornwall, England in 1882. In his youth he displayed a love for colour and design by painting the coats of arms on the carriages made in the old coach building works of his father.
In his teens he became interested in creating paintings and then undertook art studies at the Truro Central Technical College in Cornwall where he was admired for his discipline and excellence with composition.
Whilst at the College Sherman received their highest award for painting. He was also skilled in workings of wood, brass, copper, silver and enamel.
Sherman arrived in Australia in the 1920s.
As well as his lovely landscapes in oil, Sherman was particularly noted for his beautiful paintings of flowers and is regarded as one of Australia’s best painters of flowers, receiving high prize from art critics for his fine depiction of flowers and his skill at managing colour. Sherman used a varying palette of up to sixteen colours.
In 1955 the respected art teacher Howard Ashton spoke of Sherman’s work, saying: “A good flower painter finds himself before pure colours – reds, yellows, orange in all their spectral varieties – he (Sherman) has to manage a palette twice as extensive as that of the landscape painter”.
A book on Sherman’s work, “The Flower Paintings of Albert Sherman”, was published by Angus & Robertson, Sydney in 1955 in a limited edition of 1,000 copies.
Sherman received several art awards and was also a fellow of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales from 1928.
His work is represented in the collections of Armidale Teachers College, Bundaberg Regional Gallery, Tamworth Regional Gallery, Manly Art Gallery, Art Gallery of NSW, and the National Art Gallery, as well as many private collections.
Albert Sherman died in 1971.