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Details
- Date
- (circa 1895)
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 42.0 x 35.5 cm
- Signature & date
Signed l.l. corner, oil "E. Meston". Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1895
- Location
- South Building, ground level, Grand Courts
- Accession number
- 4441
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Emily Meston
Works in the collection
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About
Emily Meston was probably a more significant portrait painter than a painter of still lifes, but the Art Gallery of New South Wales rarely acquired large oil portraits by women, preferring small still-life studies which conformed to the 'decorative' stereotype then attached to 'women's art'.
In the inaugural Society of Artists exhibition in 1895, however, when Meston's 'Portrait of Rev G McInnes' was shown alongside her 'Study of grapes', it was called 'the strongest portrait, so far as The Bulletin knows, yet painted in Australia by a woman'. The Trustees of the Gallery had purchased 'Study of grapes' nine days earlier.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 3 exhibitions
Society of Artists First Exhibition (1895), York Street Skating Rink, Sydney, 28 Sep 1895–20 Oct 1895
Exhibition of Australian art in London (1898), Grafton Galleries, London, 02 Apr 1898–31 Jul 1898
Grand Courts collection rehang, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Nov 2021–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 4 publications
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an amateur critic., The Cosmos Magazine, 'The Society of Artists' exhibition', 31 Oct 1895, 79.
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Joan Kerr (Editor), Heritage: The national women's art book, Sydney, 1995, 10, 11 (colour illus.). cat.no. 14. Entry by Joan Kerr. Biography by Joan Kerr pg.406.
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Alan McCulloch and Susan McCulloch, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, St Leonards, 1994, 482.
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Bernard William Smith, A catalogue of Australian oil paintings in the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1875-1952, Sydney, 1953, 147, 232. cat.no. 470
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