artist
was born at Melbourne on 29 January 1891. He spent most of his childhood at Geelong and at 18 entered the national gallery school at Melbourne, where he studied under F. McCubbin (q.v.) and L. Bernard Hall (q.v.). He won, the Ramsay prize for portrait-painting while a student in 1913, his two pictures being placed first and second. In 1916 he studied under Max Meldrum whose theories had much influence on his work. He held a joint exhibition with R. McCann in 1917, and gradually established a reputation among those art-lovers who could appreciate the sincerity, simplicity and spaciousness of his work. Most of his paintings were landscapes, but he also did some very successful portraits. After the death of W. B . McInnes in 1939 and the appointment of Charles Wheeler as master of the painting school at the national gallery, Melbourne, Newbury was made master in the school of drawing. He, however, became ill soon afterwards and died at Eltham near Melbourne on 1 April 1941. He married Ruth Trumble who survived him with one son. He is represented in the galleries at Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Ballarat, Geelong, and at Canberra.
W. Moore, The Story of Australian Art; C. Hampel, The Paintings of A. E. Newbury; The Argus, Melbourne, 2 April 1941.
Dictionary of Australian Biography by PERCIVAL SERLE. Angus and Robertson. 1949.