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''Not to be confused with John Mather (1848–1916), a Scottish-born painter in Melbourne'' John Baxter Mather (5 March 1853 – 7 November 1940) was a Scottish born journalist, newspaper proprietor, landscape painter and art critic in South Australia. ==History== Mather was born in Edinburgh, Scotland to Thomas S. Mather (ca.1824 – 20 June 1865) and Jessie Mather (ca.1826 – 20 October 1901), and emigrated with his parents to Australia around 1860, settling first in Portland, Victoria.〔 This belated obituary is more complete and accurate than that of the ''Advertiser'' of 8 November 1940〕 Around 1864 they moved to Mount Gambier, South Australia, where after completing his schooling he started working as a compositor for A. F. Laurie and John Watson's Border Watch. In 1874 he left Mount Gambier for a time to work as compositor for Lawrie and Fairfax at the Portland Guardian where J. F. Archibald was an apprentice. After some initial sparring, the two became friends. In 1875 he started work at Naracoorte, South Australia for the ''Border Watch'', running its daughter publication, the Narracoorte Herald, which shortly afterwards he and George Ash acquired. In 1889 they were sued for libel by a wealthy squatter and lost everything they had. A great deal of sympathy was evinced locally for the pair.〔George Ash abandoned journalism, studied law and was elected to for the seat of Albert, which encompassed Naracoorte and Mount Gambier, in the South Australian House of Assembly. He did much in Parliament to remedy the evils of dummyism, of which he had written in the ''Herald''. He died of typhoid a mere five years later.〕 He moved to Adelaide and found employment with The Advertiser as a compositor, then joined their literary staff〔 The digital source identifies author as Autolycus (access date 12 June 2015).〕 as an art critic, a post he filled for fifteen years. From 1893 to 1899, he contributed drawings to the Adelaide ''Express'', using the chalk plate method, at which he was particularly adept.〔 〕 He was at the forefront of process engraving technology; the first in South Australia to do colored monotypes.〔 In 1900 he and Joseph Hanka founded Mather & Hanka's Excelsior Engraving Company of 4 Franklin Street, Adelaide, etching chalk plates (a fore-runner of the process plate) then making half-tone plates for printers, including ''The Advertiser''. A year later the company was run by Mather and George Mackie By November 1903 the company was known simply as J. B. Mather, Photo-engraver, and ceased operation in late 1910. In 1913 he was employed by the Art Gallery of South Australia, revising the catalogue which H. P. Gill completed in 1903.〔McCulloch, Alan ''Encyclopedia of Australian Art'' Hutchinson of London, 1968〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Baxter Mather」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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