Works included in this catalogue
May (P.) The Diamond Doctor 1888 {1903} SLV [DR] (Bulletin 29 Sept.1888)
May (P.) Dishing his Enemies 1888 {1903} SLV [DR] (Bulletin 17 March 1888)
May (P.) Jumps and Jim Jams 1888 {1903} SLV [DR] (Bulletin 22 Dec.1888)
May (P.) Loch and Key 1888 {1903} NGV [DR] (Bulletin 18 Aug.1888)
May (P.) Lord Carrington and New South Wales 1888 {1903} SLV [DR] (Bulletin 25 Aug.1888)
May (P.) The Mother of Civilization 1888 {1903} SLV [DR] (Bulletin 18 Feb.1888)
May (P.) The Parkes Appropriation 1888 {1903} SLV [DR] (Bulletin 21 Jan.1888)
May (P.) The Dane 1890 {1903} SLV [DR] (Bulletin 15 March 1890)
May (P.) Last Public House 1892 {1894} NGV [DR]
After a penurious early life in Yorkshire and London, Phil May moved to Sydney, where he made his name as a caricaturist for the Bulletin, producing over 800 drawings during the four years he worked there (1886-89). He then returned to England, and worked for Punch and The Graphic, achieving fame as the leading British illustrator of his day, especially after the death of Charles Keene in 1891.
Nine of May’s drawings were in the Melbourne collection by 1904, one selected by Joseph Pennell in 1894, and the others, all Bulletin drawings, all bought in Sydney after May’s death, on Bernard Hall’s advice.
Further examples were acquired for the NGV after 1905 (refer online catalogue for details).
Refs.
See http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/may-philip-william-phil-4178 (biography by H.P.Heseltine, published in ADB vol.5, 1974). See also Bénézit 9, p.607; AKL 88 (2016), p.120; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_May_%28caricaturist%29