Gordon Coutts

(Australia 1865–1937)

Title

Waiting

Year

(circa 1895)

Media category

Painting

Materials used

oil on canvas

Dimensions

90.2 x 59.7cm stretcher

Signature & date

Signed l.l., "Gordon Coutts". Not dated.

Credit

Purchased 1896

Accession number

5893

Location

19th c Australian art

Further information

Trained at the Royal Academy schools in London and Académie Julian in Paris, Gordon Coutts arrived in Melbourne and took up studies at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School. He met Tom Roberts there, whose influence is reflected in this portrait of a young woman seated in the waiting room of a wayside station in the bush. The model, in fact, posed inside a studio, with the background painted around her afterwards.

This popular painting is the artist’s most esteemed Australian work. The femininity of the sitter and her fashionable attire were trademarks of portrait and genre styles at the time.

Bibliography (9)

Susanna de Vries, The complete book of great Australian women: thirty-six women who changed the course of Australia 2003, Pymble, 2003, back cover (colour illus., detail).

Miles Franklin, My brilliant career. Read by Miranda Otto circa 2004, Ultimo, circa 2004, cover (colour illus.). 3-CD audio book (abridged) of 'My brilliant career', read by Miranda Otto.

Miles Franklin and Miranda Otto, My brilliant career. Read by Miranda Otto 1994, Artarmon, 1994, cover (colour illus.).

Miles Franklin, Ma Brillante Carrière 1995, Australia, 1995, cover (illus.).

Gavin Fry, Paint on the tracks: Australian artists and the railway 1994, 'Introduction', pg. 7-10, Sydney, 1994, 28 (colour illus.), 29, 48. cat.no. 7

Bruce James, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'Australian Collection: Painting and Sculpture', pg. 102-181, Domain, 1999, 123 (colour illus.).

Alexandra Joel, Parade: The story of fashion in Australia, 'Victorian Virtue', pg. 19-37, Pymble, 1998, 36 (colour illus.), 37.

Editor Unknown, Australian Town and Country Journal 17 Oct 1896, ‘Art Society’s spring exhibition’, pg. 16, Sydney, 17 Oct 1896, 16. Review of 'Waiting', cat.no. 50

Editor Unknown (Editor), The Argus 20 Sep 1895, ‘Victorian art. The annual winter exhibition’, pg. 6, Melbourne, 20 Sep 1895, 6.

Exhibition history (3)

Seventeenth Annual Exhibition of the Art Society of New South Wales (1896), Society Rooms, Union Chambers, Sydney, Oct 1896 -

A retrospective exhibition of Australian painting, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 25 Sep 1953–25 Oct 1953

Paint on the tracks: Australian artists and the railway, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 22 Apr 1994–29 May 1994