John Dory

Dolby Freeman

The artist of this piece remains a mystery. It is known that a person who went by "D. Freeman" used this image to illustrate the book Fowl and Fishy Rhymes written by Australian author K.A. Stanley. British and Australian printmakers with the last name "Freeman" weren't very common in the 1930s. A search online brought us to a page on the Centre for Australian Art's website, which listed an artist named Dorothy Freeman, active 1930s, who exhibited at the Sydney Harbor Bridge Celebrations' Etching Exhibition, March through April of 1932. Could "D. Freeman" - the artist listed as the illustrator of the book - actually have been Dorothy, using the name Dolby as a pseudonym?

Also found from the Adelaide Advertiser, Dec. 28, 1935: "'Fowl and Fishy Rhymes.' K.A. Stanley Illustrations by D. Freeman. London: J. M. Dent & Sons.— This is an "animal book" for children, with amusing rhymes and even funnier pictures."