Summer haze 1937

In 1921, Yorkshire-born artist William Bustard migrated to Brisbane to accept the role of chief stained-glass designer for painters, decorators and glaziers RS Exton and Co., having worked at ‘Whitefriars’ stained-glass manufacturers, London, and served in World War One. Bustard played a leading role in the development of art in Queensland. He taught at Brisbane’s Central Technical College (1924–33), was a life member of the Royal Queensland Art Society, and a founding member of the Queensland National Art Gallery’s Board of Trustees (1931). He served as Chairman of the Gallery’s Arts Advisory Committee from 1931 to 1937 when he, Vida Lahey and Daphne Mayo resigned in protest at the Board’s conservatism.  

Bustard promoted the unique qualities of his adopted home through his vibrant paintings. An example is this view of St Andrew’s Anglican Church on Vulture Street, South Brisbane, which features an impression of the city bathed in heat and humidity. Central to the scene is the City Hall clock tower. Completed seven years earlier, its edifice was a symbol of a rapidly modernising city and a source of civic pride.