Artist Database

Sydney Carter was born in Enfield, Middlesex, England in 1874. He attended the Walthamstow School of Art in London from 1890 to 1895, and later won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art from 1895 to 1899. In 1923, Carter arrived in South Africa and travelled around the country before eventually settling in Johannesburg in 1926. The following year, he began teaching art at the Witwatersrand Technical College. During the mid to late 1930s, he was commissioned to paint murals for the Johannesburg and Cape Town Post Offices. Carter was also an illustrator, having worked on several book editions by famous international authors such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Brontë and South African writer Dorothea Fairbridge. In addition to illustrations, Carter was a painter, mainly in gouche and oils, and particularly of landscapes, trees, and farmsteads. His works are in prominent South African collections such as the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, Pretoria Art Museum, Durban Art Gallery, and Ann Bryant Art Gallery in East London.