Australian Women's Art
in the National Library's Collections

Section 6. Self and Others


Susan Fereday (c.1810-78)

Self-portrait c.1850
watercolour
R8972

Susan Fereday is one of the few artists whose works in the National Library's collections enable us to trace her art over many years of her life. Works held in the Library include a sketchbook of her trip around Europe, dated 1831-34, and some of her sketchbooks completed while living at George Town near Launceston in Tasmania after 1846. Fereday was married to the local vicar who was more a scientist than a parson and she painted and drew many works for him.

This beautiful self-portrait is highly romantic and there is a companion painting of her husband in the Library.


Louisa Atkinson (1834-72)

Yarrawambie, also known as Jim Vaughan 1863
pencil drawing
R11113

Louisa Atkinson lived in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. During her short life she was taught to paint flowers and animals by her mother, Charlotte Barton, an artist and author of the first children's book written and published in Australia (A mother's offering to her children, 1841).

Yarrawambie was the aged chief of Budjong and Jindiendie [sic] from the Shoalhaven area.


Myra Felton (1835-1920)

William Pitt Faithfull 1867
pastel on paper on canvas
R3984

Myra Felton was a professional painter and photographer. In 1859 she opened her photographic studio in the family home, in Hunter Street, Sydney. She was one of the earliest professional women in the photographic business in Australia. The stilted facial features of this portrait could possibly be the result of the work being laid over a photographic base.

William Pitt Faithfull established the property Springfield at Goulburn, New South Wales in 1827 and later became a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. In 1864 Springfield was the scene of a holdup by the bushrangers Ben Hall, Gilbert and Dunn.


Miss O'Shannessy (working c.1862-98)

Officers of the Australasian Association for the
Advancement of Science, Melbourne meeting
1890
albumen print
P676

In this photograph we see the growing awareness of nationalism by an educated group of Australian citizens. In its format it is similar to many photographs taken of the Pre-Federation meetings during the 1890s.

John Higgins senior and
Mary Alice Higgins (nee Morrison)
c.1895
two cartes-de-visite
P666 P667
Edmund Barton 1898
albumen print
P925

In 1862 Miss O'Shannessy opened her own studio in Carlton, Melbourne. In 1864 Henry Johnstone became her partner and the firm became one of the most successful and prolific in Melbourne from 1870 to 1890. The studio focused mainly on portraiture which varied from the little, inexpensive portraits pasted to visiting cards called 'cartes-de-visite', to large commissioned portraits such as the photograph of Edmund Barton. The Johnstone O'Shannessy style was fairly typical of mid to late nineteenth century photography. The light is evenly toned and the emphasis is on realism, rather than on artistic interpretation of the sitter.


Florence Rodway (1881-1971)

Vera Cosgrove 1905
pastel on paper on canvas
R11311

Vera Cosgrove was 21 when this portrait was commissioned. Florence Rodway was known for her pastel portraits and received many commissions for such works. Her portraits range from sitters such as Nellie Melba to Henry Lawson as well as private people. She was still exhibiting in the 1950s.


Gwen Burns

Staff of Freeman Studios c.1910
platinotype
P748/1

Gwen Burns worked for the Freeman Studios in Sydney and then at Sydney University in the Zoology Department.

The Freeman Studios were established in Sydney in the late 1840s, in the very early days of photography in Australia.

Sydney's photographic standard has largely been Freeman's standard. In his studio were trained a number of men and women who later started out on their own, who passed their acquired knowledge and good taste to the next generation and spread the tradition of sound and sincere work over a large part of our continent. (Jack Cato, The story of the camera in Australia, 1955)


Alice Mills (1870-1929)

Testimonial to Sir Samuel Gillott,
in recognition of valuable services
1911
23 photographs on sheet
R10564

Born in Ballarat, Alice Mills became a professional photographer in 1900, after training in the Johnstone O'Shannessy studios. She concentrated mainly on newspaper work, but also undertook a great deal of portraiture from her Melbourne studio. Her approach remained fairly conventional during her highly successful thirty-year career.

Sir Samuel Gillott (1838-1913) was a lawyer and politician. He received this testimonial in recognition of his presidential services to the Working Men's College in Melbourne during 1911.


May Moore (1881-1931) and Mina Moore (1882-1957)

Melbourne Repertory Theatre Club
fancy dress ball
1914
gelatin silver
P653/1

May and her sister Mina had a studio in New Zealand before emigrating to Australia. May Moore became a Sydney-based photographer in 1910. The sisters used 'Rembrandt lighting' effects to highlight their subject's profiles from one side. It is widely considered that May Moore's portraits of the Bohemian crowd in Sydney in the 1920s are very fine.


Dora Ohlfsen (1867-1948)

Anzac medal c.1919
bronze
A40001156

Dora Ohlfsen from Ballarat was a multitalented artist. She was a sculptor, musician and a writer. In about 1919 she produced and paid for this Anzac medal which was sold to raise money for Australian soldiers from the First World War.

Dora Ohlfsen led a very different life from most of the artists represented in this exhibition. She lived and worked in Russia and England. On a visit to Australia in 1923 she stated that although she loved Australia there were more opportunities for her artistic skills in Europe.


Judith Fletcher

Miss A.M. Deane c.1920
gelatin silver sepia
P673

Judith Fletcher worked from her North Shore studio in Sydney between 1905 and 1930. She turned professional in 1908 after spending several years perfecting her skills as an amateur. She concentrated particularly on portraiture of women and children.


Bernice Agar (1885-1976)

Clara Butt Rumford 1921
gelatin silver
P663

Bernice Agar established her studio in Sydney in 1918, and quickly became Sydney's most popular and successful photographer of society women during the 1920s. Her technique involved direct, frontal lighting which emphasised her interest in shape and line and resulted in images which exuded glamour and style. Many of her photographs were published in Sydney Ure Smith's Home magazine and her success enabled her to employ several people in her studio. Agar retired after marrying.

This photograph of the opera singer Clara Butt is the only known surviving 'society portrait' by Agar in a public collection.


Margaret Oppen

Bookplate for Eirene Mort, c. 1930
wood engraving
S9651

Pixie O'Harris (1903-91)

Freda Thompson after her flight
from England to Australia
1934
pencil drawing
R10895

Freda Thompson flew single-handedly from England to Australia in a small De Havilland (Moth) biplane. Her achievement, however, was eclipsed by the MacRobertson Air Race of late 1934 which attracted great publicity. Her story is told in the book Goggles and God help you by Joan Palmer (1986).

This drawing by Pixie O'Harris shows her superb skill with the pencil.

Phyl Waterhouse (1917-89)

Vida Goldstein 1944
oil on composition board
R3606

Phyl Waterhouse from Melbourne was a popular portrait painter and received many commissions. This portrait was taken from an early photograph of Vida Goldstein.

Vida Goldstein was a leading suffragette who tried to enter the Senate and the House of Representatives five times between 1903 and 1917. She was the first female candidate to stand for the Senate. She wrote 'No self-governing country can prosper without the political aid of women.' This portrait of Vida Goldstein was on display in Parliament House, Canberra in the Trust the Women exhibition.


Lina Bryans (b.1909)

Nettie Palmer 1959
oil on canvas
R4969

Lina Bryans' paintings are freely conceived and boldly painted, with flat shapes and strong, expressionistic colours. (Alan and Susan McCulloch, The encyclopedia of Australian art, 1994)

Bryans has been exhibited widely and is well known in her home state of Victoria. This is one of numerous portraits held in the National Library of the writer, Nettie Palmer.


Patricia Moyle Blake-Lane (b.1925)

Rt Reverend Kenneth John Clements 1979
oil on canvas on masonite
R11212

Patricia Moyle Blake-Lane has taught in Queensland and has had numerous solo exhibitions. She has been commissioned to paint many portraits of well known people, and specialises in representational portraits and landscapes.

The Rt Rev Kenneth John Clements was Anglican Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn Diocese 1961-71.


Silvia Jansons (b.1950)

Robyn Archer in Tonight: Lola Blau 1980
gouache and ink
R10448

This is the original poster design for this production by the well known South Australian actor, Robyn Archer. The National Library also holds works by Silvia Jansons for A Star Is Torn, another production starring Robyn Archer.


Jocelyn Brown

Professor A.D. Hope 1985
watercolour
R10445

Jocelyn Brown is a local Canberra artist.

I specialise in watercolour or related mediums because I enjoy the challenge of its unpredictable nature and its luminosity of colour which is achieved by the white paper shining through. (Jocelyn Brown, personal communication, 1987)

She has known Professor Hope since her student days at ANU. This portrait was selected for hanging in the Portia Geach Portrait Prize in 1985.


Narelle Perroux (b.1958)

Guboo Ted Thomas singing with clapping sticks
at Land Title Day for Wallaga Lake
Aboriginal Community, NSW
1985
gelatin silver
P491/7
Tom McNiven, Aboriginal stockman, born on the
Paroo River, SW Queensland, around 1930,
opening a gate in the dog proof fence
near Bulloo Downs
1991
gelatin silver
P491/6

Narelle Perroux is interested in landscape and Australian indigenous people. She has worked with the photographer Wes Stacey on several photographic projects: in 1988 they worked with the Jerringa Koories on 'We come from the land'; in 1991 they worked with the Budjiti Aboriginal people on 'Budjiti people and the land'. Most recently Narelle Perroux has been photographing in Japan.


BOTTOM

Pat Barblett (b.1932)

Dame Alexandra Hasluck 1986
gelatin silver
P179

During the 1980s Pat Barblett and Tania Young conducted a photography school and business in Perth, Western Australia called 'The Studio'.

Dame Alexandra Hasluck, who died in 1993, was well known for her extensive writing of historical works as well as her role as the wife of Sir Paul Hasluck, Governor-General of Australia, 1969-74.


Tania Young (b.1940)

Nicholas Hasluck 1986
gelatin silver
P186

Tania Young was born in Tientsin, China of Russian parents. Her photographic career developed after travelling around the world especially in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and India. During the 1980s she was in partnership with Pat Barblett in a photography school and business called 'The Studio' in Perth, Western Australia.

Nicholas Hasluck, born in 1942, is a writer and the son of Dame Alexandra and Sir Paul Hasluck.


Jacqueline Mitelman (b.1948)

Kylie Tennant c.1988
gelatin silver
P391/3

Jacqueline Mitelman studied photography with Athol Shmith, Paul Cox and John Cato. She has been a freelance photographer specialising in black and white portraiture since 1977 and has two books to her credit plus film stills, record covers and exhibitions in New South Wales and Victoria.

This portrait of the writer, Kylie Tennant, is one of a group of portraits by Jacqueline Mitelman in the National Library. Other subjects include Susan Ryan, Ita Buttrose and Max Dupain.


Eleanor Williams

Kevin Gilbert, near Taree 1988
gelatin silver (printed 1994)
P895

Eleanor Williams is a Canberra-based photographer and widow of the Aboriginal writer and activist Kevin Gilbert. Eleanor took many portraits of Gilbert and illustrated his publications, including Child's dreaming (1992), Black from the edge (1994) and Me and Mary Kangaroo (1994).


Joyce Evans (b.1929)

Barbara Blackman 1989
gelatin silver
P372

Joyce Evans was founder and owner of the vibrant Church Street Photographic Centre, Richmond, Victoria between 1976 and 1982. In 1985 she won both the Hasselblad Masters Award and the Print of the Year. She is presently involved in a number of fields, including photographing Australian indigenous people, portraits and townscapes.

Barbara Blackman was commissioned to interview many artists for the Library's oral history collection; three of her interviews are included in the exhibition.


Heide Smith

Manning and Dymphna Clark, Wapengo 1989
gelatin silver
P496/2

Heide Smith has had a studio in Canberra since 1978. In 1983 the National Library commissioned her to photograph Churches and Churchmen of Canberra. The resulting work was exhibited at the Library and won her the Portrait Photographer of the Year award for 1984. She has published numerous books of photographs including I love Canberra (1983) and Tiwi: the life and art of Australia's Tiwi people (1990).


Lynkushka

Mary Siterenos c.1990
gelatin silver
P468

Angela Lynkushka began her photographic career in 1977, working with community groups in Melbourne. Recently she has been working with theatrical personalities, dancers and choreographers. Lynkushka's style has been influenced by American photography of the 1930s. She has exhibited widely in Melbourne and Adelaide. In Rome in 1986 she was included in the group exhibition: Portraits of Emigrants in Australia.

Mary Siterenos is a Melbourne actress of Spanish descent.


Brenda Runnegar (b.1945)

Seven Writers 1990
Sara Dowse, Marion Halligan, Margaret Barbalet, Dorothy Johnston,
Dorothy Horsfield, Suzanne Edgar and Marian Eldridge (l to r)
gelatin silver
P327/4

Brenda Runnegar has been the Administrator of the Canberra Contemporary Art Space since 1987. She has exhibited widely in Australia since 1977 and her photographs have been published in Muse and Craft Australia.

The Seven Writers were the authors of Canberra tales, a selection of short stories relating to Canberra published in 1988.


Marilena Damiano (b.1963)

Carla Zampatti 1992
cibachrome (printed 1994)
P908

Marilena Damiano has been exhibiting photographs in Australia and overseas since 1986. She specialises in portrait photography in colour.

Carla Zampatti is a well-known dress designer and business woman.


Juno Gemes (b.1944)

Anna Couani 1992
gelatin silver
P4997/6

Juno Gemes has been exhibiting photographs since 1966. A major exhibition of her work, Under Another Sky, Juno Gemes Photography 1968-1988, was shown in Budapest in 1988 and in Paris in 1989. She has also exhibited in Sydney and Canberra. Her photographs are included in many public collections.

Anna Couani is a Sydney writer, publisher and art teacher.


Anne Clarke (b.1947)

Thea Astley, weaver of words 1993
oil on canvas with paper collage
R11308

Anne Clarke is a Sydney-based artist. As well as painting she has also worked as a graphic artist for large publishing houses. This work was exhibited at the Salon de Refuse Exhibition in 1993 and won the People's Choice category.

This disarming portrait of Thea Astley is typical of the excellent, documentary and realistic portraits being painted by contemporary women artists.


Joyce Evans (n. 1929)

Professor Joan Kerr 1993
gelatin silver
P893

Professor Joan Kerr is editor of the definitive book on Australian women artists, Heritage: the national women's art book. She and her team of researchers, firstly at the University of Sydney and during 1994 at the University of New South Wales, are the originators and driving force behind the exhibitions focusing on Australian women's art during 1994-95.


To MainMain
To IntroductionIntroduction
To Section 1Section 1. Over the Back Fence
To Section 2Section 2. Distant Views
To Section 3Section 3. Childrens Lives
To Section 4Section 4. Artists Books
To Section 5Section 5. Gardens, Plants and Bird
To Section 6Section 6. Self and Others
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