Grace COSSINGTON SMITH — The Spirit of Light
Disclaimer: The information provided in this episode comes from multiple sources and is not my scientific studies or discoveries. Check the references for more details. Thank you!
Welcome to HerArt podcast, a project for art lovers, especially art created by women. In this episode, we will talk about Grace COSSINGTON SMITH, an Australian artist, and pioneer of modernist painting in Australia. My name is Nata Andreev and I am going to tell you seven curious facts that you didn’t know about the artist that was instrumental in introducing Post-Impressionism to her home country.
Curious Fact #1
Her mother Grace, born in Yorkshire, was the daughter of an Anglican rector and showed her five children the finer side of a Victorian middle-class upbringing. Grace the elder had been trained in classical music and had a firm conviction that women should have the best modern education. Young Grace’s childhood home in Sydney’s Neutral Bay, named ‘Cossington’ after the ancestral family seat in Leicestershire, was filled with books, music, and good conversation.
Curious Fact #2
Neighbors recalled the family as “eccentric, very English” and they remained Anglicans and monarchists. Unlike many artists, Grace Cossington Smith never rebelled against this heritage, but in her work, she did break with convention; and the financial security her family provided enabled her to work as an artist for more than 50 years.
Curious Fact #3
Grace herself always cited Cezanne as one of her most important influences. When she returned to Sydney on the eve of war in 1914, it was as a fully-fledged artist. She resumed her studies with Dattilo-Rubbo and the family moved to Turramurra, building a studio at the back of the house which became her jealously guarded preserve. In her new medium of painting Cossington Smith came into her own. The Sock Knitter (1915), a portrait in oils, has been hailed as the first truly modernist work by an Australian artist.
Curious Fact #4
The artist was acclaimed in her lifetime. She had 11 solo exhibitions at the Macquarie Galleries in 40 years; and from the mid-1960s until her death in 1984, although she painted much less, she was a much-admired elder stateswoman of Australian art.
Curious Fact #5
She used great sunlight and wonderful patterns of vibrant color with cool colors added to shadows, giving them a sense of energy. Using carefully placed brushstrokes of brilliant color side by side to build up small squares, she built the form in color. She was one of the earliest Australian artists to be influenced by the European Post-Impressionist movement and lead a break away from Australian Impressionism. A contemporary of Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor, her works were very daring for the time. Her main interest was color, bright shimmering color filled with reflected sunlight. She supported modernism and developed her own individual technique. It was said that she “did get a lot of criticism in the press, but she was very bold and she knew what she wanted.”
Curious Fact #6
As with the First World War, she also depicted the Second World War in various ways. Several of her other paintings show large British flags, reflecting not only her own British heritage and patriotism but also the fact that many Australians still thought of themselves as being part of the British Empire at this time. During the war, she served as a warden, which meant she was in charge of getting people out of the houses in Kur-ring-gai Avenue if there was any trouble.
Curious Fact #7
In 1973 Smith was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). For her services to Australian art, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1983. The Governor of New South Wales visited Grace Cossington Smith in her nursing home to award her the honor.
Thank you so much for listening to the seventh episode of HerArt podcast — a project for art lovers, especially art created by women. If you want to follow more of what we do, find us on Facebook and Instagram. And don’t forget to tune in next month, when I am going to tell you about another Grace, this time it’s Grace ALBEE — the first female graphic artist ever to receive full membership in the National Academy of Design.
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