Joe Jonsson

Nils Josef Jonsson (originally Jönsson)[1] (13 December 1890 – 19 March 1963) was an Australian cartoonist born in Halmstad, Sweden.[2]

At age 18 he went to sea for nine years, painting in his spare time. In 1915 he "jumped ship" in New Zealand where he worked for a while, then in Australia, finally settling down in Sydney where he studied painting full-time from 1918 to 1920 at the studio of John S. Watkins (1866–1942), becoming an instructor himself within a year. He worked as cartoonist with Smith's Weekly from 1924 to 1950 when it closed; the last artist still on staff. His jokes mostly centred on what he knew best: horses, ships and drunks.[3]

Though he produced many gag panels for Smith's Weekly, he is best remembered for "Uncle Joe and his Horse Radish", a coloured strip which first appeared January 1951 in Keith Murdoch's Sunday Herald, later Sun-Herald and was carried by other News Limited papers including Adelaide's Sunday Mail. It revolved around the splay-footed racehorse and its owners Joe (Swedish like himself) and his wife Gladys, children Oigle and Doigle, their jockey cousin Manfred and the colourful characters of the racecourse – gamblers, drunks, bookies, nobblers, touts, society belles and so on.[4]

Joe was a big powerful and reckless man with a photographic memory and enormous sense of humour. He also had a huge appetite for alcohol and a fondness for the "great Australian adjective" but it always came out pronounced "bletty". When he was called by Sir John Longstaff "the finest black-and-white artist Australia has produced", Joe's riposte was "Fancy that. And me a bletty Swede too!"[5]

He was a foundation member of the Society of Australian Black and White Artists.[6]

He married Agnes Mary McIntyre in 1927. He died of cardiovascular disease in Sydney in 1963, and was survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.[1]

References
  1. Lindesay, Vane (1983). "Jonsson, Nils Josef". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
  2. Kerr, Joan (14 November 2007). "Nils Josef Jonsson". Dictionary of Australian Artists Online. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
  3. Lindesay, Vane (1979). The Inked-In Image. Melbourne: Hutchinson. pp. 45–46. ISBN 0-09-135460-9.
  4. Ryan, John (1979). Panel By Panel. Sydney: Cassell Australia. p. 73. ISBN 0 7269 7376 9.
  5. Blaikie, George (1975). Remember Smith's Weekly?. Adelaide: Rigby. pp. 75–79.
  6. Foyle, Lindsay. "Jonsson, Josef Nils". History of Australian Cartoonists. Australian Cartoonists' Association. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
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