Grace Cossington Smith - National Gallery of Australia

Grace Cossington Smith
A RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION
Proudly sponsored by
This exhibition has been curated by
Deborah Hart, Senior Curator,
Australian Paintings and Sculpture
at the National Gallery of Australia.
Booking details
Entry $12
Members and concessions $8
Entry for booked school groups and students under 16 is free
Online teachers’ resources
Visit nga.gov.au to download study sheets that can be used with on-line images –
key works have been selected and are accompanied by additional text.
Other resources available
The catalogue to the exhibition: Grace Cossington Smith
(a 10% discount is offered for schools’ purchases)
Available from the NGA shop. Phone 1800 808 337 (free call)
or 02 6240 6420, email trade@nga.gov.au,
or shop online at ngashop.com.au
Audio tour
Free children’s trail
Postcards, cards, bookmarks and posters
Venues and dates
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 4 March – 13 June 2005
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 29 July – 9 October 2005
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 29 October 2005 – 15 January 2006
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane 11 February – 30 April 2006
nga.gov.au/CossingtonSmith
The National Gallery of Australia is an Australian Government Agency
GRACE COSSINGTON SMITH EDUCATION RESOURCE
Teachers’ notes
Grace Cossington Smith (1892–1984) is one of Australia’s most important artists; a brilliant colourist, she was
one of this country’s first Post-Impressionsts. She is renowned for her iconic urban images and radiant interiors.
Although Cossington Smith was keenly attentive to the modern urban environment, she also brought a
deeply personal, intimate response to the subjects of her art. Among the recurring themes are the metropolis
and Sydney Harbour Bridge, portraits, still lifes, landscapes, religious and war subjects, theatre and ballet
performances, and domestic interiors infused with light.
Students studying Australian Art History will be interested in this artist’s role in introducing concepts of
modernism to Australia. Cossington Smith demonstrated a more open, experimental and personally resolved
style than many of her male contemporaries and she produced works of art that challenged convention and
opened new pathways to modernism. Cossington Smith lived a quiet life, surrounded by female friends and
relatives, but in no way did she see herself as anything other than a professional artist whose vision was original
and integrity absolute.
This resource contains:
• teachers’ notes
• a biographical timeline on the artist
• 14 cards with full-colour images of works from the exhibition and contextual information
and visual analysis of each image
• a series of discussion points.
Suggested strategy for use of the resource:
Distribute the cards to students, in groups or individually
Students read the information on the back and prepare answers to the discussion points
Students deliver their prepared answers to the class and read out the visual analysis provided
Suggested reading
Grace Cossington Smith, exhibition catalogue, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2005.
Jane Hylton, Modern Australian women: paintings and prints 1925–1945, Adelaide: Art Gallery of South
Australia, 2000.
Bruce James, Grace Cossington Smith, Roseville, New South Wales: Craftsman House, 1990.
Daniel Thomas, Grace Cossington Smith: a life from drawings in the collection of the National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 1993.
For further information visit the Gallery’s website: nga.gov.au/CossingtonSmith/
Sources for the information in this education resource: Grace Cossington Smith, exhibition catalogue,
Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2005; Bruce James, Grace Cossington Smith, Roseville, New South
Wales: Craftsman House, 1990; Grace Cossington Smith, interviews with Alan Roberts at Cossington, Sydney,
9 January 1970, 29 January 1970, 9 February 1970 and 28 April 1970; and Grace Cossington Smith, interview
with Hazel De Berg, 16 August 1965, National Library of Australia.
GRACE COSSINGTON SMITH BIOGRAPHICAL TIMELINE
1890
1891–97
Ernest Augustus Smith marries Grace Fisher
The births of Mabel (1891), Grace (1892), Margaret (Madge, 1896), and twins Gordon and
Charlotte (Diddy, 1897)
1910
At the age of 18 Cossington Smith begins drawing classes at Anthony Dattilo Rubbo’s atelier
in Sydney
1912–14
Cossington Smith, her father and sister Mabel travel to England; Cossington Smith attends art
classes at Winchester Art School
1914
Cossington Smith returns to Sydney and begins painting in oils at Dattilo Rubbo’s atelier
1915
The sock knitter is painted and exhibited at an exhibition held by the Royal Art Society of New South Wales
1916
Study of a head: self portrait is painted
1920
The Smiths buy a property in Turrumurra and name it Cossington; a studio for Cossington Smith is
built in the garden
1922
Portrait of Diddy drawn around this time
1925
Centre of a city (a work in which the tonal influence of Max Meldrum can be seen) painted
around this time
1926
A return to bright colour can be noted in Cossington Smith’s works; she makes a break with her
teacher, Dattilo Rubbo; becomes interested in theosophy and the symbolic importance of colour;
Eastern Road, Turrumurra is painted around this time; Cossington Smith exhibits for the first time with
the Contemporary Group
1927
Lily growing in a field by the sea painted around this time
1928
Cossington Smith holds her first solo exhibition at Walter Taylor’s Grosvenor Galleries
1929
Four panels for a screen: loquat tree, gum and wattle trees, waterfall, picnic in a gully is painted
1930
Bridge in-curve is painted around this time
1931 Cossington Smith’s mother, Grace, dies; Cossington Smith paints Poinsettias and Hippeastrums
growing
1932
1935–36
Cossington Smith holds her first solo exhibition at the Macquarie Galleries (this gallery would
become her main exhibiting venue)
The Lacquer Room is painted
1938
Cossington Smith’s father, Ernest, dies and Cossington Smith moves her studio into the main house;
Cossington Smith undertakes many painting trips into the countryside with fellow artists Helen Stewart,
Enid Cambridge and Treania Smith
1940
Cossington Smith volunteers as an air-raid warden at Turramurra
1941–42
Church Interior is painted
1944
Dawn landing is painted
1947
Cossington Smith elected to full membership of the Society of Artists, Sydney
1948
Cossington Smith sails for England with her sisters Madge and Diddy (Madge remained in England
permanently); during the trip, Cossington Smith draws Top deck, the Arawa, Shaw Saville Line
1949
Cossington Smith travels to Italy and then back to England
1951
Cossington Smith returns to Sydney
1954
The first of Cossington Smith’s large interiors, Interior with verandah doors, is painted
1962
Diddy dies; Cossington Smith begins painting Interior in yellow before breaking her hip, which is
followed by a long convalescence (subsequently, Interior in yellow was not completed until 1964)
1973
Cossington Smith is awarded an Order of the British Empire for services to art in the New Year’s
Honours List; a retrospective exhibition of Cossington Smith’s work, organised by the Art Gallery
of New South Wales, is held and tours major capital cities
1978
Cossington Smith moves from Cossington to Dalcross Hospital and then to the Milton Nursing Home,
Roseville
1983
Cossington Smith awarded the Order of Australia
1984
Cossington Smith dies, 20 December, at the age of 92
Grace Cossington Smith
Study of a head: self portrait 1916
P O R T R A I T S
Grace Cossington Smith
Study of a head: self portrait 1916
oil on canvas on board
The Holmes à Court Collection,
Heytesbury Pty Ltd, Perth
The portraits by Grace Cossington Smith are intimate, descriptive and perceptive. She was not
interested in producing large, formally posed portraits. Members of her family sitting and reading,
friends, and children of friends were the subjects of her gentle, intuitive portraits. Many studies of her
family lounging in cane armchairs fill her sketchbooks; she delighted in the interplay between the
lineal structure of the chair and the soft silhouette of the body.
Painted as an art student in her early twenties, Study of a head: self portrait 1916 suggests the
young artist’s vitality and determination, along with her love of colour and structure. Cossington
Smith’s sensuous use of vibrant blues, greens and rosy pinks, along with the dramatic passages of
light and dark anticipate her later work. Her characteristic style, with fan-like brushstrokes, had not
developed at this early stage of her career; instead she uses bright dabs of colour, demonstrating
her awareness of British and European Post-Impressionism gleaned primarily from her classes with
Anthony Dattilo Rubbo at his atelier in Rowe Street, Sydney.
Visual analysis
Note the use of parallel diagonals to animate the composition. The collar, jaw line, nose and
parting in her hair form diagonals that counterpoint the strong compositional line from bottom left
to top right. Her dark hair is balanced by the dark, bottom right-hand corner. The artist separates
the cheek from the background with a bright edge of light paint.
Discussion points
•What characteristics of Post-Impressionism are evident in this portrait?
•What does this portrait convey about the artist?
Grace Cossington Smith
Portrait of Diddy c. 1922
F A M I L Y
Grace Cossington Smith
Portrait of Diddy c. 1922
pastel, charcoal and pencil on paper
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1974
Grace Cossington Smith was the second of five children – she had three sisters and a brother.
Her mother, also named Grace, was a cultured woman with a love of music and languages; her
father, Ernest, was appointed Crown Solicitor of New South Wales in 1890 and later established his
own firm. Theirs was a close, supportive family. The family liked nicknames: Margaret was known as
Madge and Charlotte as Diddy.
Cossington was the name of the ancestral home of the artist’s mother in Great Britain, and it was
the name given to the house where Cossington Smith was born on 22 April 1892, in Neutral Bay
in Sydney, and later to the family home in Turramurra. Cossington was also the name the artist
adopted in the 1920s, when she began signing her work as Grace Cossington Smith.
Cossington Smith’s ability to draw was recognised while she was at school. The Head Mistress of
Abbotsleigh, who encouraged Cossington Smith’s art education, gave her a gift of four art books
on her graduation from school. Her parents took it for granted that their second daughter would
study art and that she would become a professional artist, not just a genteel amateur painter.
Cossington Smith began drawing classes with Anthony Dattilo Rubbo in 1910, at the age of 18.
During her first year of tuition Cossington Smith began the practice of drawing in sketchbooks. A
sketchpad, pencils, crayons and pastels are easily transported and are non-intrusive, enabling the
artist to sit and draw within the intimacy of the family circle. The National Gallery of Australia owns
52 of Cossington Smith’s sketchbooks, dating from 1910 to the 1950s. The artist made drawings for a
variety of purposes: as finished works of art, as sketches for later paintings, as investigations of form
and composition, as travel documentation and as intimate records of family life.
Diddy was a favourite subject to draw, as she could maintain a pose while deeply absorbed in a
book. She had a close bond with Cossington Smith and was also interested in art, having studied
woodcarving with Eirene Mort. Diddy worked as a nurse at the Parramatta Hospital and in later life
Cossington Smith spent many years nursing her at home after she suffered a stroke.
Visual analysis
In Portrait of Diddy Cossington Smith concentrates the viewer’s attention on the face by framing it
between the two parallel horizontal lines of the hat and the lower edge of the collar. The diagonals
of the collar lead the eye to Diddy’s pensive, downcast face. Even at this early date it is possible
to see how Cossington Smith challenged accepted drawing practice by using a repeated vertical
stroke that defines the form with colour, rather than by following the contours of the object. This
device can be seen much later in the painting Interior in yellow 1962, 1964.
Discussion points
•Describe Cossington Smith’s family and the artist’s place in it.
•Discuss the different roles drawing took in the work of Cossington Smith.
Grace Cossington Smith
The sock knitter 1915
W A R
Grace Cossington Smith
The sock knitter 1915
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney © AGNSW
Photographed by Jenni Carter for AGNSW
Although World War I took place on the other side of the world, it had a huge influence upon
the Smith family. Both parents were born in England and many of their relatives remained there.
Cossington Smith’s brother, Gordon, joined the British Army in 1916 after one term studying at Oxford
and Cossington Smith worked regularly at the War Chest Flower Shop in Pitt Street, to help raise
funds for the soldiers. It was here that she often met Mary Cunningham, whom she later visited at
Lanyon, a property near Canberra. Cunningham was an impassioned defender of conscription
and Cossington Smith supported her position during two referenda on the subject.
The sock knitter in this work is Cossington Smith’s younger sister Madge, seated in the garden
studio of the family home at Turramurra. As well as being an intimate portrait of a family member it
represents the type of work many women undertook during World War I: knitting socks for Australian
soldiers fighting overseas.
Cossington Smith painted this portrait in 1915, while still a student at art school. It demonstrates her
interest in Post-Impressionism, which was largely new in Australian art at the time. The sock knitter
may have been inspired by reproductions of Cézanne’s paintings that were on display at Anthony
Dattilo Rubbo’s atelier, where Cossington Smith took art classes. There is also some similarity to works
by the British artists of the Camden Town Group, such as Harold Gilman and Charles Ginner, whose
works she may have seen when in Europe between 1912 and 1914.
Visual analysis
The central figure is placed vertically in the composition. An oblique patch of dark blue in the top
right connects the figure to the background and visually flattens the composition. The two sections
of pale, patterned fabric on either side of the figure also help to flatten the space. The focal point
of the painting is the face of Madge, looking down at her hands. Horizontal lines of background
fabric, diagonal lines of shoulders and lower arms, and even the diagonals of her collar direct the
viewer to this part of the painting.
Large areas of flat colour, painted thickly, demonstrate that at this early stage of her career the
artist had not yet developed her own idiosyncratic paint handling style – the small, mosaic-like
brushstrokes that are central to her later work.
Discussion points
•Describe the artist’s feelings about conscription and the contribution of Australian women to
the war effort.
•Discuss how the artist has visually ‘flattened’ the image.
Grace Cossington Smith
Dawn landing 1944
W A R
Grace Cossington Smith
Dawn landing 1944
oil on pulpboard
Sir James and Lady Cruthers Collection, Perth
Grace Cossington Smith lived through two world wars. Although known as an artist of domestic
interiors, still lifes, and portraits of family and friends, she was also interested in political and social
issues. She painted royal visits, the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the D-day invasion of
Normandy and a victory thanksgiving service in the parish church. In 1939, at the outbreak of World
War II, the artist was 47 years old. She volunteered for war work as an air-raid warden for her street in
Turramurra and created several major paintings on the theme of war at this time. These works stand
apart from the responses of other Australian artists, as they convey her strongly patriotic support for
the war and the empathy she felt for the sacrifice of young men for this gallant cause.
Inspired by the D-day landing in France in June 1944, Dawn landing depicts a column of soldiers
disembarking from a landing craft. There is no death and carnage, just a column of young men
walking forward with their heads bent. It is most likely that Cossington Smith used newspaper
photographs published in the Sydney Morning Herald on the day that the attack was reported
as the basis for this painting. She combines elements from two photographs and is therefore not
interested in creating an accurate historical reconstruction of this event; rather she emphasises
the individual’s sacrifice as the ultimate act of civic duty and patriotism. She later stated that she
was particularly interested in D-day because her nephew Bill Pakenham-Walsh took part. He was
probably the inspiration for the closest figure, with his golden colouring, and downcast, cherubic
face.
Visual analysis
The ominous yawning hull of the troop carrier, with its doors enclosing a distant tank, is the focal
point of this painting. Behind this vessel, stretching into the distance are massed hundreds of vessels
that create a mosaic-like pattern of browns and purples. The diagonal stream of soldiers, mainly
faceless and unarmed, wade forwards through the water. They are painted in glowing colours of
brown and gold. The water is broken up into patches of vertical brushstrokes in a variety of warm
shades. The cropped composition may indicate the photographic source of this image.
Discussion point
•How does this painting reveal the artist’s values and attitudes towards Australian participation in
World War II?
Grace Cossington Smith
Centre of a city c. 1925
C I T Y
L I F E
Grace Cossington Smith
Centre of a city c. 1925
oil on canvas on hardboard
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney © AGNSW
Photographed by Jenni Carter for AGNSW
B
y the beginning of 1924 Grace Cossington Smith was finding herself isolated in Turramurra,
estranged from the city. Her brother, Gordon, was studying at Oxford, Diddy was often away from
home nursing and Madge had left Australia for the first time to visit England. At the age of 30 she
was certain of her identity as an artist but felt isolated from the world at large.
Centre of a city was painted around 1925. It is an affirmation of Cossington Smith’s status as an
artist. Technical assurance and compositional clarity convey the sombre essence of modern city life
where humans, like black ants, are dominated by featureless windows within towering, geometric
buildings. This is a ground-breaking work for Cossington Smith, as it is the first painting to display the
sky as a radiant aureole. The chopped brushstrokes and colour gradations sweeping above the
hard-edged golden buildings suggest that there is more to life than the everyday 10 o’clock bustle
of Martin Place in Sydney.
Visual analysis
A sketchbook reveals at least 10 preparatory pencil studies for this
painting, which the artist only began when she felt assured of its
perspective accuracy and tonal resolution. The vanishing point is
related to the eye level of the artist and is therefore found above
the centre of the right-hand pavement, at the point where the
dark wedge of shadow overlaps the most distant building. All of the
diagonal lines lead to this point. The little white rectangle above this
point also attracts the eye to this part of the painting. The foreground
is in deep shadow and is populated by a cart with horses, which
visually connects with the rectangle of the far building. The artist
emphasises the illusion of distance by sweeping the wide road down
and up and reducing the size of the figures.
Discussion points
•How does Grace Cossington Smith reveal her attitude to the city in
this painting?
•Photocopy the image and outline all of the perspectival/diagonal
lines. See if you can find the vanishing point.
Study for Centre of a city c. 1925
pencil on paper sketchbook 10
National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra Purchased 1976
The Bridge in-curve c. 1930
Grace Cossington Smith
C I T Y
L I F E
Grace Cossington Smith
The Bridge in-curve c. 1930
tempera on cardboard
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Presented by the National Gallery Society of Victoria 1967
The years from 1926 until the late 1930s were amongst the most important in Grace Cossington
Smith’s artistic life. From the mid 1920s her paintings became more colourful, with the paint being
applied in many small, separate strokes. These juxtaposed touches of paint, often in concentric
radiating patterns, give paintings from this period a brilliant vitality.
Cossington Smith became interested in colour theory after reading a book by Beatrice Irwin, called
New science of colour. The theory outlined in this book investigates the physical, mental and
spiritual nature of colour, concluding that experiencing colour has the power to transform our state
of mind. Roland Wakelin and Roy De Maistre, artist friends of Cossington Smith’s, also had an interest
in the emotional and spiritual effect colour has upon the viewer.
The Bridge in-curve, painted around 1930, demonstrates Cossington Smith’s understanding of Irwin’s
colour theory. The radiating aura of blue and white in the sky almost tingles with spiritual power.
The earth-bound colours of the buildings and bushes are painted more analytically but with an
emphasis on emotional rather than descriptive effect.
Based on a number of drawings made from Milsons Point on the
North Shore, this painting is more than an exercise in line, form and
pattern. The construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge began in
1923 and continued until its opening in March 1932. The new Bridge
was a symbol of hope, unification and progress at a time of financial
depression. It was the most exciting and daring feat of engineering
taking place in Sydney at the time.
Visual analysis
The Bridge in-curve, with its sweeping curves, auras of radiating lines,
and repeated rhythmic patterns of girders and cables conveys an
uplifting sense of wonder at the magnificence of this structure.
Working drawing for The Bridge
in-curve 1930 pencil and
coloured pencil National
Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1976
The horizontal collection of bushes in the foreground creates a firm base for a composition that
becomes more dynamic, angular and ethereal as the eye travels to the focal point of the gap
between the two arches. Diagonal cables and the suspended arch on the left also direct the eye
to this point. The vertical lines of the power poles on the right complete the circular movement,
grounding the viewer amongst the blue-green foliage of the foreground.
Discussion points
•This is more than a descriptive view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Discuss how Cossington Smith
endeavors to add symbolic meaning to this image.
•Discuss the application of Irwin’s New science of colour in this painting.
The Lacquer Room 1935–36
Grace Cossington Smith
C I T Y
L I F E
Grace Cossington Smith
The Lacquer Room 1935–36
oil on paperboard on plywood
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney © AGNSW
Photographed by Christopher Snee for AGNSW
Grace Cossington Smith has often been associated with the introduction of modernism to
Australian art. Characteristics of modernism include simplified compositions, decorative flatness,
clearly outlined shapes, emphasis on colour and rhythmic elements, and a reduction of forms to
their essentials.
Along with Roy De Maistre and Roland Wakelin Cossington Smith was a student of Anthony Dattilo
Rubbo, who introduced his students to the art of the Post-Impressionists Cézanne, Van Gogh and
Gauguin.
The paintings of Cossington Smith, with their singing colour, fan-shaped brushstrokes defining
simplified forms and dynamic, often asymmetrically balanced compositions place her firmly in the
modernist tradition.
The Lacquer Room, painted in 1935–36, demonstrates many modernist
characteristics. It depicts an American-style Art Deco café from the late
1920s called the Soda Fountain, located in David Jones, Sydney. The
geometric forms in the painting are simplified and flattened, and the
repeated shapes create rhythmic patterns.
Visual analysis
The curves of the red chairs and their vertical slats dominate the
composition and are counter-pointed by the green rectangular tables
and the chalky geometry of the background. There is no directed light
source creating shadows and tone, instead the whole composition is
bathed in an even glow.
Study for The Lacquer Room
c. 1935 pencil on paper
sketchbook 14 National
Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1976
The figures, although painted in darker, more muted colours, seem almost as inanimate as the
furniture. They are captured as if looking at the artist making the preliminary drawing for this work,
a practice she used for all of her paintings from this period.
Discussion point
•List the characteristics of modernism that this painting exhibits.
Grace Cossington Smith
Eastern Road, Turramurra c. 1926
L A N D S C A P E
Grace Cossington Smith
Eastern Road, Turramurra c. 1926
watercolour over pencil on paperboard
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Bequest of Mervyn Horton 1984
Many of Grace Cossington Smith’s landscapes from the 1920s were painted near her home in the
beautiful, elevated, semi-rural North Shore suburb of Turramurra. The subject of this work, Eastern
Road, was close to Cossington Smith’s family home and the sharp decline and rise of the road
offered her the chance to create this vertiginous composition of sweeping space and distant,
oblique horizon.
This watercolour was developed from a pencil sketch in which she
worked out the composition in great detail. Cossington Smith was a
very deliberate artist; her drawings were made in front of the object
and colour notes made on the margin. The drawings are quite specific
and correspond closely to the recommendations of Beatrice Irwin,
who had written the book New Science of colour. Irwin suggested
that colours are imbued with certain properties, for example, olive
green (sedative), rose madder, fawn, royal blue and emerald green
(recuperative), and violet and chrome (stimulative). The squared
drawing was then carefully transferred to the larger support and
the watercolour applied according to the notes on the preparatory
drawing.
Visual analysis
Study for Eastern Road, Turramurra
c. 1926 pencil on paper
sketchbook 10 National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1976
The strong diagonal of the road sweeps towards the centre of the
painting and then curves upwards towards the oblique horizon. On
either side the foreground intersects the sky via the large, framing green
trees. The largest telegraph pole leans towards the left and this angle is emphasised by the three
close-cropped sticks in the foreground. Note that the telephone lines do not continue back into the
work (and do not appear at all on the right-hand side), as they would have made the composition
too complex.
The verticality of the trees, poles and road is counterbalanced by many curving horizontal lines of
the fields, trees and houses. The glowing curves of the sky lighten towards the horizon. The colour
red is used almost like punctuation across the composition, attracting the eye from one side of
the road to the other. A horse and cart, steamroller and distant person on the road enliven the
composition and serve to create a sense of distance.
Discussion point
•Discuss the role of colour theory and the role of drawing in the work of Grace Cossington Smith.
Four panels for a screen: loquat tree, gum and wattle trees, waterfall, picnic in a gully 1929
Grace Cossington Smith
L A N D S C A P E
Grace Cossington Smith
Four panels for a screen: loquat tree, gum and wattle trees,
waterfall, picnic in a gully 1929
oil on cardboard
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1976
A thread that runs through the work of Grace Cossington Smith is her contented view of the
world around her – the suburban life of North Shore Turramurra, where she lived for most of her life.
Although much of her subject matter was fairly conservative – still lifes, landscapes, flower studies,
portraits, interiors and cityscapes – her radical, adventurous treatment of these subjects placed
her in a realm of her own. She often stated her interest in the works of European masters, such as
Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin, and incorporated stylistic elements from these artists into her
own art, which resulted in paintings of great vigour and originality.
Four panels for a screen: loquat tree, gum and wattle trees, waterfall, picnic in a gully was painted
in 1929; it was commissioned by Gladys MacDermot a collector who, on a visit to Sydney, had
admired and bought one of Cossington Smith’s Bridge paintings. The four panels were displayed
individually in an exhibition in 1932 at the Walker’s Galleries in London before being made into a
screen. Despite favourable reviews, MacDermot did not approve of the panels and they were
left with Cossington Smith’s sister Mabel, who lived in England. There they stayed until they were
purchased for the National Gallery of Australia in 1976.
The first two panels illustrate flowers and trees from the artist’s garden in Turramurra, while the
second two are bushland panels that describe the bush nearby.
Visual analysis
The unusual, tall format suits the subject matter of trees, waterfalls and rocky outcrops. To
counteract this verticality Cossington Smith uses many horizontal curved forms that describe
foliage, the foreground, rocks, falling water and the sky. The colour is high-keyed and opaque, with
each brushstroke applied deftly.
Discussion point
•In what way was Grace Cossington Smith pushing the boundaries of contemporary art?
Grace Cossington Smith
Poinsettias 1931
F L O W E R S
Grace Cossington Smith
Poinsettias 1931
oil on pulpboard
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Ivor Francis Bequest Fund 1995
Grace Cossington Smith’s mother died in 1931 and this event shattered the close-knit Smith family.
Her mother’s declining health and mortality also led Cossington Smith to think about what it meant
to be alive on this earth. In historical ‘vanitas’ paintings the subject of flowers is often associated
with the transience of life.
Poinsettias 1931 was painted in the year of Cossington Smith’s mother’s
death. The cyclical nature of life is suggested by the fragility of these
blooms, their curling, dying leaves and their downcast form. However,
the vivid colour and radiating composition is also an affirmation of life.
Lily growing in a field by the sea c. 1927 has a strange iconic quality.
Cropped from their leaves, the large blossoms fill the top half of the
canvas. Neither in a vase nor a garden, isolated against a distant
fence line, this image creates an edgy quality not normally associated
with flower paintings. Similarly unconventional, the closely focused
dusky red and white petals of Hippeastrums growing 1931 fill the frame.
Cossington Smith often painted flowers. Her sense of structure,
combined with the delicate quality of Australian native flora resulted
in works that were lighter and less dramatic than those of her peer
Margaret Preston. As Cossington Smith said in an interview with Alan
Roberts in 1970, ‘to me the whole point of Australian flowers is that they
are extremely light … they have an atmosphere of their own … very
beautiful and light’.
Lily growing in a field by the sea
c. 1927 oil on pulpboard
Private collection Photographed
by Brenton McGeachie for NGA
Visual analysis
Cossington Smith, like Cézanne, was not interested in symmetry or
stability. Many of her compositions included angled forms that direct
the eye through the picture plane. Note the angle of the vase, the
table and the curved stem that ends in a small, curled brown leaf in
the top right. The three circular red blooms are intricately painted over
a careful preliminary drawing and the cloth behind them echoes the
movement of the spinning bracts.
Discussion point
•Why were flowers an important subject for this artist? Discuss the
symbolic nature of flower paintings.
Hippeastrums growing 1931 oil
on pulpboard Private collection
Grace Cossington Smith
Church interior c. 1941–42
R E L I G I O N
Grace Cossington Smith
Church interior c. 1941–42
oil with pencil on pulpboard
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Purchased 2001 with funds raised through
Grace Cossington Smith Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Appeal
Grace Cossington Smith was born into a devoutly Anglican family. Both of her parents were born
in England and the Smiths had many relatives living there. In 1890 Ernest Smith, a solicitor, married
the beautiful and musical Grace Fisher, whose father was a clergyman. The family was relatively
affluent. The Smith children’s early education was conducted at home by governesses and private
tutors, an accepted practice for their social standing. Ernest Smith played a distant role in the
rearing of the family, supervising prayers in the evening and reading stories. He oversaw the spiritual
instruction of the children with priestly authority. His was a non-dogmatic faith, but steadfast and
unchallenged, and was to be a determining factor not only in the artist’s life but in her art.
Church interior was painted during World War II. It depicts St James’ Anglican Church in Turramurra,
a significant place for the Smith family, as they had worshipped there regularly since 1913. This
particular church had been rebuilt during 1941 and Cossington Smith’s painting would have been
one of the first images of the new interior. The stained-glass window depicted in Church interior was
designed by Cossington Smith’s good friend Ethel Anderson. By positioning herself at the back of
the church the artist became both an observer and a worshipper. Missing in this painting are the
young men who have gone to war, and many of the women are wearing black, lending a somber
feel to the painting. The enclosing shape of the church roof, the calmly ordered pews and choir,
and diagonal blue carpet leading to the cross beneath the glowing window convey a safe-haven
at this time of war and sacrifice.
Visual analysis
The sense of order in Church interior is created by careful geometric drawing. The female figure in
the pink coat is centered in the foreground and it seems that through her eyes we see the altar as
the focal point of all the diagonal lines in the composition.
Discussion point
•How does this painting reveal the artist’s religious background and her feelings about World War II?
Grace Cossington Smith
Interior with wardrobe mirror 1955
I N T E R I O R S
Grace Cossington Smith
Interior with wardrobe mirror 1955
oil on canvas on paperboard
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney © AGNSW
Photographed by Ray Woodbury for AGNSW
D
uring the 1950s Grace Cossington Smith was spending most of her time at home in Turramurra
nursing her sister Diddy, who had suffered a stroke. Advised by a friend to increase the size of her
paintings, Cossington Smith’s first large interior, Interior with verandah doors, was painted in 1954. All
of the following interiors have a similar personal, but unpopulated, appearance. The artist is invisibly
present; she captures her own memories and dreams in these images of rooms in the family home.
Her presence is felt in the open cupboards, the rug, books and paintings that make her room
personal. Pictures within pictures, views through windows and reflected in mirrors typify Cossington
Smith’s works from this point.
Interior with wardrobe mirror was painted in 1955 when the artist was 63. The dramatic use of
diagonal planes creates a composition that is both visually complex and intellectually intriguing.
Although by this stage Cossington Smith was no longer relying on sketches to prepare her
compositions, the careful placement of angled forms that touch and reflect each other indicates
that the composition was carefully worked out prior to painting.
Visual analysis
The open cupboard door and the bed on the right are both cropped, bringing the viewer right
into the space of the painting. The artist’s characteristic use of diagonals in her composition lead
the eye to the bottom point of the mirrored door. The mirror reflects the bed, verandah and sunny
garden beyond the room, and hidden behind the mirror is the suggestion of another door leading
to another part of the house.
Cossington Smith’s use of small, square brushstrokes capture a shimmering light with their
fragmented colours, however, in this work they do follow the direction of the form evident on the
floor and rug. The artist stated in an interview with Hazel de Berg in 1965: ‘I use squares in the way
I paint … because I feel in that way … light can be put into the colour, whereas just to put colour
onto the surface in a flat way, I feel that it gives it a dead look.’
Discussion points
•Discuss the way Grace Cossington Smith reveals not only her environment but her personality
in this painting.
•Cossington Smith was a painter of light. Discuss.
Grace Cossington Smith
Interior in yellow 1962, 1964
I N T E R I O R S
Grace Cossington Smith
Interior in yellow 1962, 1964
oil on composition board
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1965
S
ince 1911, in her earliest sketchbooks Grace Cossington Smith had
been interested in doorways, creating suggestions of space beyond.
She exhibited small paintings of interiors intermittently in the 1930s and
regularly in the 1940s. Her 1947 exhibition included 10 interior views of
her home. Their significance lies in the opportunities they offered for
experimentation and as a precursor to the great interiors of her later
life. The framing device of a doorway creates an immediate illusion
of depth, a feature of the work of Pierre Bonnard, whose paintings
Cossington Smith would have seen on her last visit overseas, between
1948 and 1951. However, she states that it was Cézanne who was more
important to her; his use of unstable compositions and form-defining
brushstrokes can be seen as an inspiration for many of her paintings.
In her later years the artist’s use of brighter, more fragmented colour
Study for A passageway at
Church Cottage, Bowral 1911–12
may have reflected her sense of liberation, freed from the pressures
pencil on paper sketchbook 2
National Gallery of Australia,
of having to prove herself. These late interiors with their brilliant use
Canberra Purchased 1976
of colour, especially yellow, represent an emphasis on the emotional
aspects of colour. For Cossington Smith seeing and feeling were
inseparable. As she said in an interview with Alan Roberts in 1970, ‘I see something and it makes
me feel a colour and that is what I try to get’. In fact the interior rooms of Cossington were not
particularly bright, the verandahs obstructing most of the direct sunlight that seems to permeate
these paintings.
While painting Interior in yellow Cossington Smith fell and broke her hip. She finished the painting
two years after beginning it, and it is tempting to read into the enclosed feel of the room something
of her confinement during this time.
Visual analysis
The angled bed and chair dominate the foreground of this dramatically glowing painting, with
the strong diagonal of the floor and walls leading the viewer’s eye to the far corner of the work.
Another spatial illusion is created with the sunny refection of the verandah and garden seen in the
mirrored door of the wardrobe. Completed almost nine years after Interior with wardrobe mirror,
the composition is more stable and the brushstrokes are invariably vertical. This device creates a
dynamic tension between the surface of the painting and the illusion of space created by the
diagonal forms.
Discussion points
•Discuss the artist’s feeling for and use of colour in her art.
•How did the work of Cézanne influence Cossington Smith?
Grace Cossington Smith
Top deck, the Arawa, Shaw Savill Line c. 1949
T R AV E L
Grace Cossington Smith
Top deck, the Arawa, Shaw Savill Line c. 1949
ink and pen, pencil, and coloured pencil
sketchbook 25 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1976
Grace Cossington Smith spent most of her life living in the family home in Turramurra. During her
student days she spent more time in the city, traveling there by train. She traveled overseas twice.
The first trip was with her father and older sister, Mabel, in 1912 when Cossington Smith was 19.
During this time she briefly attended art school at Winchester in England and also attended art
classes during a three-month stay in Stettin, Germany.
Separated by some 34 years and two world wars, the artist’s second period overseas spanned
December 1948 to February 1951. By this time she was a mature and established artist.
Accompanied by her two younger sisters, Madge and Diddy, Cossington Smith filled 26 sketchbooks
over this period. Drawing was her primary mode of making art while overseas, and the drawings
present a chronological and geographical survey of her journeys to new and familiar places. In
these later drawings she replaced pastels with graphite pencil, coloured pencil, and pen and ink.
Over her artistic life Cossington Smith filled many sketchbooks with drawings, 52 of which are in the
collection of the National Gallery of Australia. Many of these sketchbooks are filled with sketches
made during her second trip abroad and a number are finished drawings rather than working
drawings for later paintings.
Top deck, the Arawa, Shaw Savill Line c. 1949 was created on the way to Europe. Cossington Smith
spent many hours observing and drawing life on deck, the heaving ocean, and the luminous light
of sky and water. She used coloured pencils lightly, letting the paper show through, concentrating
on their lineal rather than tonal quality. As in her paintings, the direction of the pencil strokes in her
drawings animate the surface and convey movement and light.
Visual analysis
The artist’s characteristic use of oblique lines and angled structures can be seen in this composition.
The converging lines of the deck lead the eye into the distance, with the overlapping and tilting
forms on the left conveying the heaving motion of the vessel.
Discussion points
•Discuss the significance of drawing in the art of Grace Cossington Smith.
•Discuss the difference between a finished drawing and a sketch. Look at Top Deck, the Arawa,
Shaw Savill Line in this context.