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Details
- Other Title
- From earth to ocean
- Date
- 1889
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 35.6 x 45.4 cm stretcher; 51.2 x 61.8 x 8.0 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.l. corner, red oil "M.Stoddard/ 1889".
- Credit
- Purchased 1889
- Location
- South Building, ground level, Grand Courts
- Accession number
- 5951
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Mary Stoddard
Works in the collection
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About
Mary Stoddard’s exacting still life implies worldly knowledge and travel. The nautilus shell conjures a history of seafaring in the Indo-Pacific, while the carefully arranged flowers are English roses and the South African native plumbago. Stoddard’s elegant composition of prized natural objects enacts a colonial desire for collection and display.
A successful painter of flowers, portraits and popular imagery such as Christmas cards and newspaper illustrations, Stoddard was adept at shifting registers to suit her audience and intent. The glinting dewdrops on the petals of an overturned rose are a focal point that emphasise her precise attention to detail. With its severe shadows and crisp surface, 'From earth and ocean' takes its place in an academic tradition inherited from 17th-century Dutch still-life painting: a vehicle for demonstrating technical skill and symbolic meaning.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, Jackson Park, Chicago, , 01 May 1893–30 Oct 1893
Exhibition of Australian art in London (1898), Grafton Galleries, London, 02 Apr 1898–31 Jul 1898
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Bibliography
Referenced in 9 publications
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Caroline Ambrus, Australian Women Artists, First Fleet to 1945: History, Hearsay and Hersay, Woden, circa 1992, 190 (colour illus.). plate 12
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Anna Elias, Art and Australia (vol. 32, no. 1), 'Useless Beauty', pg. 66-72, Sydney, Spring 1994, 70 (colour illus.).
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1891, Sydney, 1891. cat.no. 249, Australian Court
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1899, Sydney, 1899. cat.no. 235, Oil Paintings-Australian
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1888, Sydney, 1888. cat.no. 155, Oil Paintings, titled 'From Earth and Ocean'
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National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Catalogue of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1893, Sydney, 1893, 107. cat.no. 374, titled 'From earth to ocean', Loan collection to Commissioners of the Chicago Exposition.
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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, 196-97.
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Natalie Wilson, Selling a nation: Australian artists at International Exhibitions [M.A., University of Sydney], 'Organisation of the New South Wales display in Chicago', pg.18-45, Sydney, 2001, between 42-43 (colour illus.), 43, 53. figure no. 33
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World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893: Catalogue of the exhibits in the New South Wales Courts, 'Department K - fine arts, painting, sculpture, architecture and decoration. Grou, p 140, Sydney, 1893, 435. cat.no. 12; section 1178
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