Grace Cossington Smith

(Australia 1892–20 Dec 1984)

Title

The sock knitter

Place of origin

Turramurra → Sydney → New South Wales → Australia

Year

(1915)

Media category

Painting

Materials used

oil on canvas

Dimensions

61.6 x 50.7cm stretcher; 77.2 x 66.0 x 6.4cm frame

Signature & date

Signed l.l. corner, red oil "G.C.Smith". Not dated. Signed and dated top c. verso on canvas, pen and black ink "... 1914-1918/ G. Cossington Smith".

Credit

Purchased 1960

Accession number

OA18.1960

Copyright

Location

Not on display

Further information

Grace Cossington Smith’s 'The sock knitter' has been acclaimed as the first post-impressionist painting to be exhibited in Australia. A remarkable student work, the painting signalled a challenge to the artistic traditions of the time. The extreme flattening of the picture plane and the use of bright, expressive, broken colour applied in broad brush-strokes to delineate form reflects the aesthetic concerns of European painters such as Cézanne, Matisse and van Gogh.

The subject of the painting is Madge, the artist’s sister, knitting socks for soldiers serving on the frontline in World War I. Distinctly modern in its outlook, 'The sock knitter' counterpoints the usual narratives of masculine heroism in wartime by focusing instead on the quiet steady efforts of the woman at home.

Bibliography (44)

Jenny McFarlane (Australia) (Author), Concerning the Spiritual: The influence of the Theosophical Society on Australian Artists 1890-1934, North Melbourne, 2012, 144.

Jaynie Anderson (Editor), The Cambridge companion to Australian Art, Port Melbourne, 2011, 110, 353. fig.no. 9.1 (colour illus.), between pg. 124 and 125.

Peter Stanley (b.1956) (Author), Digger Smith and Australia's Great War: ordinary name--extraordinary stories, Sydney, 2011, 85 (colour illus.), 358.

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Dr Joseph Brown (Australia) (Editor), The CBUS collection of Australian art, Melbourne, 2009, 67.

Sue Cramer (Author), Lesley Harding (Australia) (Author), Cubism & Australian art, Carlton, 2009, 25 (colour illus.).

Nick Waterlow (Australia) (Curator), Annabel Pegus (Australia) (Curator), Symposium papers: Colour in art - revisiting 1919 & R-Balson, Paddington, 2008, 18-19.

Stephen Farthing (Editor), 1001 paintings you must see before you die, London, 2007, (colour illus.).

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Exhibition history (17)

Thirty-sixth Annual Exhibition of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales (1915), Exhibition Gallery Department of Public Instruction, Oct 1915 -.

Purchases and Acquisitions for 1960, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 22 Mar 1961–23 Apr 1961.

Grace Cossington Smith (1973-74), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 15 Jun 1973–15 Jul 1973.

Grace Cossington Smith (1973-74), Queensland Art Gallery, 06 Sep 1973–04 Oct 1973.

Grace Cossington Smith (1973-74), Western Australian Art Gallery, 06 Dec 1973–02 Jan 1974.

Grace Cossington Smith (1973-74), Art Gallery of South Australia, 11 Jan 1974–10 Feb 1974.

Grace Cossington Smith (1973-74), National Gallery of Victoria [St Kilda Road], 26 Mar 1974–28 Apr 1974.

Project 21 - Womens images of women (1977), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 15 Oct 1977–13 Nov 1977.

Twentieth century Australian masterworks from the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Fred Williams Pilbara series from the collection of CRA Limited, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, 04 Oct 1985–06 Nov 1985.

Australian Painters Seeing Cézanne, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 28 Nov 1998–17 Jan 1999.

Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000.

Grace Cossington Smith: a retrospective exhibition (2005), National Gallery of Australia, 04 Mar 2005–13 Jun 2005.

Grace Cossington Smith: a retrospective exhibition (2005), Art Gallery of South Australia, 29 Jul 2005–09 Oct 2005.

Grace Cossington Smith: a retrospective exhibition (2005), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 29 Oct 2005–15 Jan 2006.

Grace Cossington Smith: a retrospective exhibition (2005), Queensland Art Gallery, 11 Feb 2006–30 Apr 2006.

Australian modern masterpieces from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 05 Oct 2011–27 Nov 2011.

Australian modern masterpieces from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, 10 Dec 2011–04 Mar 2012.