William Alfred Clarson, son of William Clarson and his first wife Sarah nee Barratt, was born at Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England in 1852. Although named William after his father and grandfather, he was called Alfred by his family, and styled himself W.A. Clarson apparently to distinguish himself from his father, whose name was also William.
Alfred arrived at Port Phillip, Australia from London as an infant with his parents on the "Caroline Chisholm" in May 1853 (source: Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists to Victoria 1852-1923,http://proarchives.imagineering.com.au/index_search.asp?searchid=23). His mother died from dysentery in March 1854 (source: Victorian death certificate), and his father married Caroline Stabback in July 1855 (source: Victorian marriage certificate).
Alfred joined Clarson, Massina & Co, a printing firm part-owned by his father, in 1867 when he was 15 years old (source: "First Ninety Years, the printing house of Massina", by Ronald G Campbell (Ronald Grayson or Rex Grayson, his pen name), Melbourne, 1949).
When he was just 20 years old, Alfred accompanied a scientific expedition to Cape Sidmouth (far north Queensland) in 1871 to observe a total eclipse of the sun, organised by the Government Astronomers for Victoria and NSW (source: The Brisbane Courier, 21 Dec 1871, page 2).
At the 1872 Victorian Exhibition: Water-Colour Drawings, &c. – Clarson, W.A., 72 Little Collins Street east – no.42 'Eastern End of Dandenong Ranges'.
After a scandalous court case involving his step-mother and Dr John Blair in Melbourne during 1872, the Clarson family left for England, and did not return to Melbourne until 1877 (source: "The Argus" newspaper, February and March 1872). While in England, Alfred visited his father's relations in Tamworth, Staffordshire (source: family knowledge).
Sydney International Exhibition, Garden Palace, 1879-80: NSW Court – Oils – Clarson, W.A., artist, Pitt-street – no.48 Still Life. "Mr W.A. Clarson's picture of 'Still Life' is really very good. ... thoughtfully and cleverly painted ( Sydney Mail 10 January 1880, 69).
He exhibited with the [Royal] Art Society of NSW in 1881.
The Brisbane Courier of 19 January 1881, page 3, reported that "Mr Alfred Clarson, artist for the Illustrated Sydney News, and son of Mr William Clarson, the well-known printer of Melbourne" who had been reported as missing while on a trip to Queensland three or four months previously, had been found safe and well. He had been marooned on Russell Island. "During his enforced stay Mr Alfred Clarson took a large number of sketches on the island, which will no doubt be published in due course".
Alfred foolishly married two women within two weeks at Sydney in December 1881 (source: NSW marriage certificates). He then took up a teaching post on Lord Howe Island with his first wife and was arrested there in April 1882 for bigamy (source: Thomas Bryant Wilson, – Diary written at Lord Howe Island, 1882, online at http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/Ebind/safe1_10/a1158/a1158169.html). Alfred was photographed while at Darlinghurst Gaol in May 1882, and the file provides a physical description, ie he was 5' 8" tall, weighed 134 pounds, had brown hair and blue eyes (source: Index to Goal Photographs, http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/keyname_search.asp). Following his conviction in May 1882 Alfred was sentenced to four years' imprisonment with hard labour on the roads, and was transferred to Berrima Gaol on 30 June. After serving his sentence, and being divorced by his first wife Martha (nee Payne) (source: Index to Divorces, http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/keyname_search.asp), Alfred married Susan Parkinson again in 1886. Their two sons Arthur and Sidney were born in 1882 and 1887 (source: NSW marriage and birth certificates).
Alfred was an artist, using the name W A Clarson. The National Library of Australia, Canberra holds a coloured lithograph entitled "Brisbane, 1888" (source: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/). This lithograph was offered for sale on the Internet in 2001 for $6,000. It was described as:
"Signed and dated in the plate lower left 'W.A. Clarson 1888'. Pale foxing, very good condition. Rare. The first Brisbane panorama of this style and one of the finest printed colonial images ofBrisbane. Drawn (apparently from a balloon above Brisbane) by William Clarson who was the first Secretary of the Art Society of New South Wales. … Susanna Evans ('Historic Brisbane and Its Early Artists', 1981, pp. 112-3) gives a detailed account of the content of the image, identifying many of the buildings."
Evans says "W Clarson was the first secretary of the Art Society of NSW when Julian Ashton was the Society's President. He specialised in the highly-detailed 'balloon's eye' panoramas, and was also the author and illustrator of a work on Colonial horticulture, entitled 'The Flower Garden and Shrubbery', published in Sydney in 1885" [actually this was most likely Alfred's father's publication, as his father was a horticulturalist and journalist as well as a printer]. Evans continues: "His life was otherwise uneventful and little was written about him. There appears to be no reference in any contemporary newspapers or letters as to how he achieved the accuracy of an aerial photograph for his lithographed drawing, which presents a fascinating survey of Brisbane's urban development up to this period. Suggestions have been made that he hovered above Brisbane in a hot-air balloon. However had this happened the 'Supplement to the Illustrated Sydney News' of 30th August 1888, in which this appeared as a lithograph, would have undoubtedly accompanied the picture with a printed story of such a sensational event. and no such story appeared with it … It is more likely that he climbed the bell-tower of St John's Pro-Cathedral to obtain this view."
The National Library of Australia, Canberra also holds the following paintings by Alfred, which are all described as "drawn on stone by W. Clarsen [sic] from paintings by J.C. Hoyte", circa 1880s (source: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/):
View from Gladesville
View from Berry's Bay
Iron Cove
Parramatta River & Lane Cove
View from Ball's Head
View from Biloela
Lane Cove River.
According to the catalogue of the Art Society of New South Wales Exhibition in October 1881, Alfred exhibited the following: "Still life study", "Waratah coal pit near Newcastle", and "Old humpy, Carragalla, Moreton Bay" (source: Catalogue in NLA, http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/).
"In memory of Alfred Clarson (lost Queensland bush), only son (no daughter) of the late William Clarson, of Clarson and Co., printers, Melbourne" (SMH, 30 Dec 1893; and Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 30 Dec 1893, p1). This notice must have been published by his stepmother Caroline.
Alfred Clarson's death was not registered in Queensland until 1906, "aged about 57 years" (in fact he was 54), parents not named (source: Queensland Government index to births, deaths and marriages, https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch/BirIndexQry.m). He was survived by his son Sidney Clarson, who was also an artist.
Source: https://www.daao.org.au/bio/w-a-clarson/biography/, accessed 9 Aug 2023.
Alfred arrived at Port Phillip, Australia from London as an infant with his parents on the "Caroline Chisholm" in May 1853 (source: Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists to Victoria 1852-1923,http://proarchives.imagineering.com.au/index_search.asp?searchid=23). His mother died from dysentery in March 1854 (source: Victorian death certificate), and his father married Caroline Stabback in July 1855 (source: Victorian marriage certificate).
Alfred joined Clarson, Massina & Co, a printing firm part-owned by his father, in 1867 when he was 15 years old (source: "First Ninety Years, the printing house of Massina", by Ronald G Campbell (Ronald Grayson or Rex Grayson, his pen name), Melbourne, 1949).
When he was just 20 years old, Alfred accompanied a scientific expedition to Cape Sidmouth (far north Queensland) in 1871 to observe a total eclipse of the sun, organised by the Government Astronomers for Victoria and NSW (source: The Brisbane Courier, 21 Dec 1871, page 2).
At the 1872 Victorian Exhibition: Water-Colour Drawings, &c. – Clarson, W.A., 72 Little Collins Street east – no.42 'Eastern End of Dandenong Ranges'.
After a scandalous court case involving his step-mother and Dr John Blair in Melbourne during 1872, the Clarson family left for England, and did not return to Melbourne until 1877 (source: "The Argus" newspaper, February and March 1872). While in England, Alfred visited his father's relations in Tamworth, Staffordshire (source: family knowledge).
Sydney International Exhibition, Garden Palace, 1879-80: NSW Court – Oils – Clarson, W.A., artist, Pitt-street – no.48 Still Life. "Mr W.A. Clarson's picture of 'Still Life' is really very good. ... thoughtfully and cleverly painted ( Sydney Mail 10 January 1880, 69).
He exhibited with the [Royal] Art Society of NSW in 1881.
The Brisbane Courier of 19 January 1881, page 3, reported that "Mr Alfred Clarson, artist for the Illustrated Sydney News, and son of Mr William Clarson, the well-known printer of Melbourne" who had been reported as missing while on a trip to Queensland three or four months previously, had been found safe and well. He had been marooned on Russell Island. "During his enforced stay Mr Alfred Clarson took a large number of sketches on the island, which will no doubt be published in due course".
Alfred foolishly married two women within two weeks at Sydney in December 1881 (source: NSW marriage certificates). He then took up a teaching post on Lord Howe Island with his first wife and was arrested there in April 1882 for bigamy (source: Thomas Bryant Wilson, – Diary written at Lord Howe Island, 1882, online at http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/Ebind/safe1_10/a1158/a1158169.html). Alfred was photographed while at Darlinghurst Gaol in May 1882, and the file provides a physical description, ie he was 5' 8" tall, weighed 134 pounds, had brown hair and blue eyes (source: Index to Goal Photographs, http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/keyname_search.asp). Following his conviction in May 1882 Alfred was sentenced to four years' imprisonment with hard labour on the roads, and was transferred to Berrima Gaol on 30 June. After serving his sentence, and being divorced by his first wife Martha (nee Payne) (source: Index to Divorces, http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/keyname_search.asp), Alfred married Susan Parkinson again in 1886. Their two sons Arthur and Sidney were born in 1882 and 1887 (source: NSW marriage and birth certificates).
Alfred was an artist, using the name W A Clarson. The National Library of Australia, Canberra holds a coloured lithograph entitled "Brisbane, 1888" (source: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/). This lithograph was offered for sale on the Internet in 2001 for $6,000. It was described as:
"Signed and dated in the plate lower left 'W.A. Clarson 1888'. Pale foxing, very good condition. Rare. The first Brisbane panorama of this style and one of the finest printed colonial images ofBrisbane. Drawn (apparently from a balloon above Brisbane) by William Clarson who was the first Secretary of the Art Society of New South Wales. … Susanna Evans ('Historic Brisbane and Its Early Artists', 1981, pp. 112-3) gives a detailed account of the content of the image, identifying many of the buildings."
Evans says "W Clarson was the first secretary of the Art Society of NSW when Julian Ashton was the Society's President. He specialised in the highly-detailed 'balloon's eye' panoramas, and was also the author and illustrator of a work on Colonial horticulture, entitled 'The Flower Garden and Shrubbery', published in Sydney in 1885" [actually this was most likely Alfred's father's publication, as his father was a horticulturalist and journalist as well as a printer]. Evans continues: "His life was otherwise uneventful and little was written about him. There appears to be no reference in any contemporary newspapers or letters as to how he achieved the accuracy of an aerial photograph for his lithographed drawing, which presents a fascinating survey of Brisbane's urban development up to this period. Suggestions have been made that he hovered above Brisbane in a hot-air balloon. However had this happened the 'Supplement to the Illustrated Sydney News' of 30th August 1888, in which this appeared as a lithograph, would have undoubtedly accompanied the picture with a printed story of such a sensational event. and no such story appeared with it … It is more likely that he climbed the bell-tower of St John's Pro-Cathedral to obtain this view."
The National Library of Australia, Canberra also holds the following paintings by Alfred, which are all described as "drawn on stone by W. Clarsen [sic] from paintings by J.C. Hoyte", circa 1880s (source: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/):
View from Gladesville
View from Berry's Bay
Iron Cove
Parramatta River & Lane Cove
View from Ball's Head
View from Biloela
Lane Cove River.
According to the catalogue of the Art Society of New South Wales Exhibition in October 1881, Alfred exhibited the following: "Still life study", "Waratah coal pit near Newcastle", and "Old humpy, Carragalla, Moreton Bay" (source: Catalogue in NLA, http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/).
"In memory of Alfred Clarson (lost Queensland bush), only son (no daughter) of the late William Clarson, of Clarson and Co., printers, Melbourne" (SMH, 30 Dec 1893; and Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 30 Dec 1893, p1). This notice must have been published by his stepmother Caroline.
Alfred Clarson's death was not registered in Queensland until 1906, "aged about 57 years" (in fact he was 54), parents not named (source: Queensland Government index to births, deaths and marriages, https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch/BirIndexQry.m). He was survived by his son Sidney Clarson, who was also an artist.
Source: https://www.daao.org.au/bio/w-a-clarson/biography/, accessed 9 Aug 2023.
William Alfred Clarson, son of William Clarson and his first wife Sarah nee Barratt, was born at Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England in 1852. Although named William after his father and grandfather, he was called Alfred by his family, and styled himself W.A. Clarson apparently to distinguish himself from his father, whose name was also William.
Alfred arrived at Port Phillip, Australia from London as an infant with his parents on the "Caroline Chisholm" in May 1853 (source: Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists to Victoria 1852-1923,http://proarchives.imagineering.com.au/index_search.asp?searchid=23). His mother died from dysentery in March 1854 (source: Victorian death certificate), and his father married Caroline Stabback in July 1855 (source: Victorian marriage certificate).
Alfred joined Clarson, Massina & Co, a printing firm part-owned by his father, in 1867 when he was 15 years old (source: "First Ninety Years, the printing house of Massina", by Ronald G Campbell (Ronald Grayson or Rex Grayson, his pen name), Melbourne, 1949).
When he was just 20 years old, Alfred accompanied a scientific expedition to Cape Sidmouth (far north Queensland) in 1871 to observe a total eclipse of the sun, organised by the Government Astronomers for Victoria and NSW (source: The Brisbane Courier, 21 Dec 1871, page 2).
At the 1872 Victorian Exhibition: Water-Colour Drawings, &c. – Clarson, W.A., 72 Little Collins Street east – no.42 'Eastern End of Dandenong Ranges'.
After a scandalous court case involving his step-mother and Dr John Blair in Melbourne during 1872, the Clarson family left for England, and did not return to Melbourne until 1877 (source: "The Argus" newspaper, February and March 1872). While in England, Alfred visited his father's relations in Tamworth, Staffordshire (source: family knowledge).
Sydney International Exhibition, Garden Palace, 1879-80: NSW Court – Oils – Clarson, W.A., artist, Pitt-street – no.48 Still Life. "Mr W.A. Clarson's picture of 'Still Life' is really very good. ... thoughtfully and cleverly painted ( Sydney Mail 10 January 1880, 69).
He exhibited with the [Royal] Art Society of NSW in 1881.
The Brisbane Courier of 19 January 1881, page 3, reported that "Mr Alfred Clarson, artist for the Illustrated Sydney News, and son of Mr William Clarson, the well-known printer of Melbourne" who had been reported as missing while on a trip to Queensland three or four months previously, had been found safe and well. He had been marooned on Russell Island. "During his enforced stay Mr Alfred Clarson took a large number of sketches on the island, which will no doubt be published in due course".
Alfred foolishly married two women within two weeks at Sydney in December 1881 (source: NSW marriage certificates). He then took up a teaching post on Lord Howe Island with his first wife and was arrested there in April 1882 for bigamy (source: Thomas Bryant Wilson, – Diary written at Lord Howe Island, 1882, online at http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/Ebind/safe1_10/a1158/a1158169.html). Alfred was photographed while at Darlinghurst Gaol in May 1882, and the file provides a physical description, ie he was 5' 8" tall, weighed 134 pounds, had brown hair and blue eyes (source: Index to Goal Photographs, http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/keyname_search.asp). Following his conviction in May 1882 Alfred was sentenced to four years' imprisonment with hard labour on the roads, and was transferred to Berrima Gaol on 30 June. After serving his sentence, and being divorced by his first wife Martha (nee Payne) (source: Index to Divorces, http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/keyname_search.asp), Alfred married Susan Parkinson again in 1886. Their two sons Arthur and Sidney were born in 1882 and 1887 (source: NSW marriage and birth certificates).
Alfred was an artist, using the name W A Clarson. The National Library of Australia, Canberra holds a coloured lithograph entitled "Brisbane, 1888" (source: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/). This lithograph was offered for sale on the Internet in 2001 for $6,000. It was described as:
"Signed and dated in the plate lower left 'W.A. Clarson 1888'. Pale foxing, very good condition. Rare. The first Brisbane panorama of this style and one of the finest printed colonial images ofBrisbane. Drawn (apparently from a balloon above Brisbane) by William Clarson who was the first Secretary of the Art Society of New South Wales. … Susanna Evans ('Historic Brisbane and Its Early Artists', 1981, pp. 112-3) gives a detailed account of the content of the image, identifying many of the buildings."
Evans says "W Clarson was the first secretary of the Art Society of NSW when Julian Ashton was the Society's President. He specialised in the highly-detailed 'balloon's eye' panoramas, and was also the author and illustrator of a work on Colonial horticulture, entitled 'The Flower Garden and Shrubbery', published in Sydney in 1885" [actually this was most likely Alfred's father's publication, as his father was a horticulturalist and journalist as well as a printer]. Evans continues: "His life was otherwise uneventful and little was written about him. There appears to be no reference in any contemporary newspapers or letters as to how he achieved the accuracy of an aerial photograph for his lithographed drawing, which presents a fascinating survey of Brisbane's urban development up to this period. Suggestions have been made that he hovered above Brisbane in a hot-air balloon. However had this happened the 'Supplement to the Illustrated Sydney News' of 30th August 1888, in which this appeared as a lithograph, would have undoubtedly accompanied the picture with a printed story of such a sensational event. and no such story appeared with it … It is more likely that he climbed the bell-tower of St John's Pro-Cathedral to obtain this view."
The National Library of Australia, Canberra also holds the following paintings by Alfred, which are all described as "drawn on stone by W. Clarsen [sic] from paintings by J.C. Hoyte", circa 1880s (source: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/):
View from Gladesville
View from Berry's Bay
Iron Cove
Parramatta River & Lane Cove
View from Ball's Head
View from Biloela
Lane Cove River.
According to the catalogue of the Art Society of New South Wales Exhibition in October 1881, Alfred exhibited the following: "Still life study", "Waratah coal pit near Newcastle", and "Old humpy, Carragalla, Moreton Bay" (source: Catalogue in NLA, http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/).
"In memory of Alfred Clarson (lost Queensland bush), only son (no daughter) of the late William Clarson, of Clarson and Co., printers, Melbourne" (SMH, 30 Dec 1893; and Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 30 Dec 1893, p1). This notice must have been published by his stepmother Caroline.
Alfred Clarson's death was not registered in Queensland until 1906, "aged about 57 years" (in fact he was 54), parents not named (source: Queensland Government index to births, deaths and marriages, https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch/BirIndexQry.m). He was survived by his son Sidney Clarson, who was also an artist.
Source: https://www.daao.org.au/bio/w-a-clarson/biography/, accessed 9 Aug 2023.
Alfred arrived at Port Phillip, Australia from London as an infant with his parents on the "Caroline Chisholm" in May 1853 (source: Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists to Victoria 1852-1923,http://proarchives.imagineering.com.au/index_search.asp?searchid=23). His mother died from dysentery in March 1854 (source: Victorian death certificate), and his father married Caroline Stabback in July 1855 (source: Victorian marriage certificate).
Alfred joined Clarson, Massina & Co, a printing firm part-owned by his father, in 1867 when he was 15 years old (source: "First Ninety Years, the printing house of Massina", by Ronald G Campbell (Ronald Grayson or Rex Grayson, his pen name), Melbourne, 1949).
When he was just 20 years old, Alfred accompanied a scientific expedition to Cape Sidmouth (far north Queensland) in 1871 to observe a total eclipse of the sun, organised by the Government Astronomers for Victoria and NSW (source: The Brisbane Courier, 21 Dec 1871, page 2).
At the 1872 Victorian Exhibition: Water-Colour Drawings, &c. – Clarson, W.A., 72 Little Collins Street east – no.42 'Eastern End of Dandenong Ranges'.
After a scandalous court case involving his step-mother and Dr John Blair in Melbourne during 1872, the Clarson family left for England, and did not return to Melbourne until 1877 (source: "The Argus" newspaper, February and March 1872). While in England, Alfred visited his father's relations in Tamworth, Staffordshire (source: family knowledge).
Sydney International Exhibition, Garden Palace, 1879-80: NSW Court – Oils – Clarson, W.A., artist, Pitt-street – no.48 Still Life. "Mr W.A. Clarson's picture of 'Still Life' is really very good. ... thoughtfully and cleverly painted ( Sydney Mail 10 January 1880, 69).
He exhibited with the [Royal] Art Society of NSW in 1881.
The Brisbane Courier of 19 January 1881, page 3, reported that "Mr Alfred Clarson, artist for the Illustrated Sydney News, and son of Mr William Clarson, the well-known printer of Melbourne" who had been reported as missing while on a trip to Queensland three or four months previously, had been found safe and well. He had been marooned on Russell Island. "During his enforced stay Mr Alfred Clarson took a large number of sketches on the island, which will no doubt be published in due course".
Alfred foolishly married two women within two weeks at Sydney in December 1881 (source: NSW marriage certificates). He then took up a teaching post on Lord Howe Island with his first wife and was arrested there in April 1882 for bigamy (source: Thomas Bryant Wilson, – Diary written at Lord Howe Island, 1882, online at http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/Ebind/safe1_10/a1158/a1158169.html). Alfred was photographed while at Darlinghurst Gaol in May 1882, and the file provides a physical description, ie he was 5' 8" tall, weighed 134 pounds, had brown hair and blue eyes (source: Index to Goal Photographs, http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/keyname_search.asp). Following his conviction in May 1882 Alfred was sentenced to four years' imprisonment with hard labour on the roads, and was transferred to Berrima Gaol on 30 June. After serving his sentence, and being divorced by his first wife Martha (nee Payne) (source: Index to Divorces, http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/keyname_search.asp), Alfred married Susan Parkinson again in 1886. Their two sons Arthur and Sidney were born in 1882 and 1887 (source: NSW marriage and birth certificates).
Alfred was an artist, using the name W A Clarson. The National Library of Australia, Canberra holds a coloured lithograph entitled "Brisbane, 1888" (source: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/). This lithograph was offered for sale on the Internet in 2001 for $6,000. It was described as:
"Signed and dated in the plate lower left 'W.A. Clarson 1888'. Pale foxing, very good condition. Rare. The first Brisbane panorama of this style and one of the finest printed colonial images ofBrisbane. Drawn (apparently from a balloon above Brisbane) by William Clarson who was the first Secretary of the Art Society of New South Wales. … Susanna Evans ('Historic Brisbane and Its Early Artists', 1981, pp. 112-3) gives a detailed account of the content of the image, identifying many of the buildings."
Evans says "W Clarson was the first secretary of the Art Society of NSW when Julian Ashton was the Society's President. He specialised in the highly-detailed 'balloon's eye' panoramas, and was also the author and illustrator of a work on Colonial horticulture, entitled 'The Flower Garden and Shrubbery', published in Sydney in 1885" [actually this was most likely Alfred's father's publication, as his father was a horticulturalist and journalist as well as a printer]. Evans continues: "His life was otherwise uneventful and little was written about him. There appears to be no reference in any contemporary newspapers or letters as to how he achieved the accuracy of an aerial photograph for his lithographed drawing, which presents a fascinating survey of Brisbane's urban development up to this period. Suggestions have been made that he hovered above Brisbane in a hot-air balloon. However had this happened the 'Supplement to the Illustrated Sydney News' of 30th August 1888, in which this appeared as a lithograph, would have undoubtedly accompanied the picture with a printed story of such a sensational event. and no such story appeared with it … It is more likely that he climbed the bell-tower of St John's Pro-Cathedral to obtain this view."
The National Library of Australia, Canberra also holds the following paintings by Alfred, which are all described as "drawn on stone by W. Clarsen [sic] from paintings by J.C. Hoyte", circa 1880s (source: http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/):
View from Gladesville
View from Berry's Bay
Iron Cove
Parramatta River & Lane Cove
View from Ball's Head
View from Biloela
Lane Cove River.
According to the catalogue of the Art Society of New South Wales Exhibition in October 1881, Alfred exhibited the following: "Still life study", "Waratah coal pit near Newcastle", and "Old humpy, Carragalla, Moreton Bay" (source: Catalogue in NLA, http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/).
"In memory of Alfred Clarson (lost Queensland bush), only son (no daughter) of the late William Clarson, of Clarson and Co., printers, Melbourne" (SMH, 30 Dec 1893; and Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 30 Dec 1893, p1). This notice must have been published by his stepmother Caroline.
Alfred Clarson's death was not registered in Queensland until 1906, "aged about 57 years" (in fact he was 54), parents not named (source: Queensland Government index to births, deaths and marriages, https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch/BirIndexQry.m). He was survived by his son Sidney Clarson, who was also an artist.
Source: https://www.daao.org.au/bio/w-a-clarson/biography/, accessed 9 Aug 2023.
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