Eric Jolliffe

Eric Ernest Jolliffe (31 January 190716 November 2001) was an Australian cartoonist and illustrator.

Early life Born in Portsmouth, England, he was the youngest boy in a family of twelve children. The family migrated to Perth, Western Australia, in 1911 before moving to Sydney after six months, where they settled in Balmain. Jolliffe left school at the age of fifteen and spent the next six years in New South Wales and Queensland, working as a boundary rider, rabbit trapper and in shearing sheds.

Artistic career A visit to Angus & Robertson bookstore, while visiting his family in Sydney, led to the discovery of a book on drawing. He afterwards reflected: "I learned to my surprise that art wasn't necessarily a gift divine but a craft that could be studied and worked at". He was particularly fond of "bush" subjects. Another cartoon strip, Sandy Blight, appeared in Sydney's Sun-Herald. In 1973, Jolliffe began publishing his own magazine, Jolliffe's Outback.

Legacy George Blaikie recalled in 1979 that Jolliffe "had humped the bluey and toiled at all kinds of farm and station jobs. Wherever he went he sketched the minutiae most people failed to see – shacks and sheds, funny old gates and tree stumps they hinged on, bark roofs, billabongs and cows in bogs. Such authentic reference was poured into his gags and he became our most brilliant interpreter of the countryside."

Australian Aborigines figured largely in Jolliffe's work, including in his numerous pen and pencil portraits in Witchetty's Tribe. Jim Hodge observed that "sensitivity without sentiment describes his approach" Their daughter Margaret ("Meg") had died in 1989.

He died on 16 November 2001 at the age of 94. His funeral service was held at Ourimbah on the Central Coast of New South Wales. 1985, 1986: Stanley Award: "Single Gag Cartoonist of the Year" 1960, 1961: Sydney Savage Club Cartoonist Award