(b Melbourne, 12 March 1865; d Melbourne, 8 Oct 1915). Australian painter and teacher. From 1878 to 1886 he trained at the National Gallery of Victoria Art Schools, Melbourne, and in 1887 left to study in Europe. In Paris he attended the Académie Julian and was taught by Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and by the American artist T. Alexander Harrison (1853–1930). He was involved with the plein-air artists at Etaples, Pas-de-Calais, and in Brittany and also visited Giverny, where from 1883 Monet was living. By 1890 he had moved to England, to the artists’ colony at St Ives, Cornwall. In 1892 he returned to Melbourne where he chiefly painted portraits and landscapes. He was a member of the Victorian Artists’ Society, exhibiting with them between 1892 and 1900. In 1893 he established the lively Melbourne Art School with Tudor St George Tucker (1862–1906). There an academic training coupled with a modified Impressionist technique was taught, as can be seen in Fox’s painting the Art Students (1895; Sydney, A.G. NSW). In 1901 he left for London, having been commissioned by the Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria to paint the Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay (Melbourne, N.G. Victoria). After his marriage in 1905 to the artist Ethel Carrick, he and his wife settled in Paris and remained there until 1913. His harmonious works celebrate the graceful languor of the Edwardian era, as in Al fresco (c. 1905; Adelaide, A.G. S. Australia). Although interested in depicting the effects of flickering sunlight on solid objects, he maintained an academic approach. He exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and at the Royal Academy, London.

• Fox, E(manuel) Phillips
  • Fox , Ethel Carrick
  • Heidelberg school