Fox Art Academy - Cromwell Building
Elizabeth Street and Bourke Street, C.1950
The Fox Art Academy was established by Elton Fox in 1935, when he returned to Melbourne after living in California for 15 years. While in California, Fox established the Fox Art Institute and School of Commercial Art in Oakland.
Fox’s academy in Melbourne was in an upper-level of the Cromwell Building, which was situated at the northwest corner of Elizabeth and Bourke Streets. Students of his academy were taught lettering and design, illustration, colour-science and composition. In this photograph, students are being instructed in drawing - Fox is visible standing towards the centre of the room.
The Fox Art Academy in the Cromwell Building was short-lived and closed by 1940. However, it is fair to say that Fox had a prolific career in art. As well as the academies that he established in California and Melbourne, Fox taught artists Joy Hester and Grahame King, and is credited with the design of the Skipping Girl neon sign ‘Little Audrey’ in Abbotsford. Fox died in 1970 - around the same time that the Cromwell Building, containing his former academy and studio, was demolished.