Charles Meere

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Charles Meere (6 December 1890 – 17 October 1961) was an English-born artist who studied in England and France. He served in World War I and moved to Australia in 1932, where he built a successful art career in Sydney. He did commercial art, exhibited widely, and taught life drawing to students such as Freda Robertshaw. He won the Sulman Prize in 1938 for Atalanta's Eclipse, a neo-classical take on a Greek myth.

A colleague described him as a bit of a character—slightly eccentric, looking like a businessman, with a dry sense of humor.

In 1950 Meere sued the Brisbane newspaper Courier Mail after it published an editorial cartoon by Ian Gall that used his signed portrait of Ben Chifley to imply Chifley was controlled by Jack Lang. Meere won the case, and in 1951 was awarded £800 for damages to his reputation.

Meere is best known for his stylised Art Deco paintings from the interwar period, especially Australian Beach Pattern (1938–40). The painting has been seen in many ways: as a celebration of Australian beach life, as a commentary on racial ideas, or as a reflection of Australia's unpreparedness for World War II. It was chosen for the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics and was included in a major Australian art exhibition at London's National Gallery in 2013.

Meere married nurse Denise Moreau in 1919, and they had a son, Desmond, in 1920. He later married Anne Carter in Sydney, and they had a son, Michael John Meere, born on 4 December 1938, who died before his first birthday.