Arthur Elliott

Arthur Elliot (1870-1938) was a Cape Town based painter and photographer, famous for his more than 13,000 photographs of historic places, buildings and events in South Africa.

Born in the USA of Scottish parents, he did various jobs till he arrived in South Africa in 188*,

His work in theatre

Initially employed in Johannesburg by Luscombe Searelle from 1891 to paint scenery for his company. His first job was on Forget-Me-Not starring Genevieve Ward, for which he was paid £18 15s. ** He moved to Cape Town in 189*, and was given a camera as a gift. This led to a career as photographer, taking his own photos, copying historic images and paintings, and so on. He was for a while a partner of Headly Churchward. and salesman. His more than 13,000 photographic negatives are in the Archives in Cape Town and a book on his work (A Cape Camera, by cultural historian Hans Fransen), was published by Ad Donker Publishers in 1993.

Sources

De Beer, 1995,

Fletcher, 1994

Franzen, 1993

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