Skip to content

Collection

An image of Nursemaids in the Luxembourg Gardens by Kathleen O'Connor

Kathleen O'Connor

(Australia, France, New Zealand 14 Sep 1876–24 Aug 1968)

Title
Nursemaids in the Luxembourg Gardens
Other titles:
Nursemaids in the Luxemburg Gardens
Year
(circa 1923)
Media category
Painting
Materials used
oil on paperboard
Dimensions

48.9 x 59.0cm board; 63.7 x 74.4 x 4.0cm frame

Signature & date
Signed l.l. corner, grey oil "K L O'Connor". Not dated.
Credit
Purchased 1966
Accession number
OA7.1966
Copyright
© Reproduced with permission
Location
Not on display
Further information

Kathleen O’Connor was a significant expatriate artist who spent almost 50 years living abroad, mostly in Paris, before returning to Australia. She produced a series of paintings in the Luxembourg Gardens, where she spent much time observing people and capturing what she saw in the form
of painted ‘sketches’.

'Nursemaids in the Luxembourg Gardens' emanates from this series. Painted with rapid and fluid brushstrokes on paperboard, it provides the viewer with an intimate glimpse of two nursemaids sitting on a park bench caring
for small children. It evokes a sense of reverie through the muted colours and an emotional distance with the subjects viewed from behind.

Bibliography (4)

Jude Adams, Barbara Hall and Jennifer Barber, Project 21: Women's images of women 1977, Sydney, 1977. cat.no. 28; Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1966 Acquisitions 1966, Sydney, 1966, 14.

Janda Gooding, Chasing Shadows The Art of Kathlenn O'Connor 1996, 'An artist in the Luxembourg Gardens', pg. 19-35, Sydney, 1996, 19-35. NOTE: General reference

Julie Lewis and P. AE. Hutchings, Kathleen O'Connor: artist in exile, 'The Luxembourgh Gardens Pictures', pg. 211-216, Perth, 1987, 245 (colour illus.), 284 (illus.). NOTE: Appendices A is a list of works included in the 1967 "Kathleen O'Connor: Hommage exhibition' held at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. cat.no. 72.

Exhibition history (5)

Kathleen O'Connor: hommage exhibition, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Australia, 22 Feb 1967–19 Mar 1967

Purchases and Acquisitions for 1966, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1967 -

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

Her story: images of domestic labour in Australian art, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 26 Sep 1991–20 Oct 1991

Leaping boundaries: a century of New Zealand artists in Australia, Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman, 09 Jun 2001–17 Jul 2001