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W. Lister Lister

Australian artist (1859-1943)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ2579743
Source-derived summary

William Lister Lister (27 December 1859 – 6 November 1943) was an Australian painter who specialized in landscapes. He was awarded the Wynne Prize seven times. He was also a recipient of a federal government prize for his painting of the federal capital site at Canberra. In some sources the two Listers are hyphenated.

Biography

At the age of eight he moved with his parents to Yorkshire, England; where his father was born. There, he studied at Bedford School, then spent a year in Paris studying art. While there, his father changed the family name from Buttrey to Lister by deed poll. From 1876 to 1880, he studied mechanical engineering at the College of Science and Arts and the Fairfield Engineering Works, both in Glasgow, after which he became a ship's engineer. While studying, he joined the St. Mungo Art Club, founded by a Scottish cartoonist known as Cynicus, and was soon exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy, aged only seventeen.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “W. Lister Lister” as australian artist (1859-1943). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lister, Australian and artist.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1859, 1943, 1876, 1880—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1859-12-27. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Lister, Australian and artist providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “W. Lister Lister”, the useful work is to connect “australian artist (1859-1943)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2579743. VIAF identifies the subject as 7189261. The Library of Congress control number is no2008009079. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1859, 1943, 1876 and 1880.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “W. Lister Lister”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow W. Lister Lister primary sources, W. Lister Lister archive and Lister research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “W. Lister Lister”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from W. Lister Lister” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.