12/10/2026
Frederick Matthew Williams (1855 - 1929)
Born in Chester, England in 1855, Frederick Williams moved to Melbourne in 1878 as a young artist. Williams joined the National School of Art where he studied and practiced alongside the likes of Frederick McCubbin, John Longstaff, David Davies, and many others, some of whom would go on to form the Heidelberg School, also known as the Australian Impressionist.
During his time in Melbourne, Williams taught drawing at the Toorak College and earned himself an honourable mention for some of his Exhibited work. Thanks to the profits from his teaching and his art, he and his fellow young artist often spent their weekends together, living out of tents at Box Hill before they eventually moved to the old Heidelberg House, here the group would paint, picnic and dance with local girls, even taking the time to teach some of them how to paint.
It was during these weekend trips that Fred Williams would meet his future wife Anna Fraser, a daughter of the neighbouring Fraser family. Anna and her sister Lottie Fraser spent much of their free time with the young artist group, so much so that they even featured in one of Tom Robert’s pieces “Bourke St. Melbourne” (although they were added to the piece nearly 4 years after its “completion”).
However, hard times soon fell on Williams when his banked saving were lost in 1891 as the banks in Melbourne began to collapse. In search of a quick fortune, Williams moved to Western Australia to join the gold rush at Coolgardie. But it didn’t take long for Williams to realise that his fortune would not be found in gold, and so, he began the 300 odd mile track back to Perth on foot, sketching as he went. Upon his arrival in Perth, Williams was joined by his love Anna Fraser, and in September 1893 the couple married and began their life together in Melville Terrace, South Perth.
Like he had in Melbourne, Williams soon joined Perth’s small group of practising artists including Herbert Gibbs, Bernard Woodward, George Pitt Morrison and Henry Prinsep. It’s believed that during this time the artists utilised Frederick Williams’ second home in Gooseberry Hill for their weekends away. Located on what is now Williams Street, “Homebush” as it was called, was a small cottage that sat immediately East of the railway and was prompted as an ideal place for sketching.
The group was also keen to establish a West Australian Society of Arts and provide artists with a flourishing creative environment that went beyond the few small groups like Herbert Gibbs “Wilgie Club” that existed at the time. In pursuit of their dream, Herbert Gibbs and Frederick Williams return to labour work, with Gibbs working for the Land Department and Williams as a civil servant in Perth, saving what money they could. Finally in 1899, that dream became a reality and the West Australian Society of Arts was formed.
For the next 15 years Frederick Williams and Herbert Gibbs would grow the society and even helped fund the opening of the first government funded art school in Western Australia, the Perth Technical School where Williams was Director and then the first Master.
Frederick and Anna would eventually leave Perth in 1915 for Sydney where Frederick continued to paint and teach until his death in 1929.
