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Booking detailsEntry $12Members and concessions $8Entry for
booked school groups and students under 16 is free
Online teachers’ resourcesVisit 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 availableThe 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 [email protected], or shop online at
ngashop.com.au
Audio tourFree children’s trailPostcards, cards, bookmarks and
posters
Venues and datesNational Gallery of Australia, Canberra 4 March
– 13 June 2005Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 29 July – 9
October 2005Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 29 October 2005
– 15 January 2006Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane 11 February – 30
April 2006
nga.gov.au/CossingtonSmithThe National Gallery of Australia is
an Australian Government Agency
Grace Cossington Smith
A RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION
This exhibition has been curated by Deborah Hart, Senior
Curator, Australian Paintings and Sculpture at the National Gallery
of Australia.
Proudly sponsored by
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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 individuallyStudents read the information
on the back and prepare answers to the discussion pointsStudents
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 EDUCATION RESOURCE
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GRACE COSSINGTON SMITH BIOGRAPHICAL TIMELINE
1890 Ernest Augustus Smith marries Grace Fisher
1891–97 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 Cossington Smith holds her first solo exhibition at the
Macquarie Galleries (this gallery would become her main exhibiting
venue)
1935–36 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
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Grace Cossington SmithStudy of a head: self portrait 1916
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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 fi ll 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?
P O R T R A I T S
Grace Cossington SmithStudy of a head: self portrait 1916
oil on canvas on board
The Holmes à Court Collection,
Heytesbury Pty Ltd, Perth
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Grace Cossington SmithPortrait of Diddy c. 1922
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Grace Cossington Smith was the second of fi ve 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 fi rm. 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 fi rst 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 fi
nished 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 defi nes 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 SmithPortrait of Diddy c. 1922
pastel, charcoal and pencil on paper
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1974
F A M I L Y
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Grace Cossington SmithThe sock knitter 1915
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Although World War I took place on the other side of the world,
it had a huge infl uence 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 fi ghting
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 fi gure is placed vertically in the composition. An
oblique patch of dark blue in the top right connects the fi gure to
the background and visually fl attens the composition. The two
sections of pale, patterned fabric on either side of the fi gure
also help to fl atten 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 fl at 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 ‘fl attened’ the image.
W A R
Grace Cossington SmithThe sock knitter 1915
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney © AGNSW
Photographed by Jenni Carter for AGNSW
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Grace Cossington SmithDawn landing 1944
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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 sacrifi ce 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 sacrifi ce 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 fi gure, 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?
W A R
Grace Cossington SmithDawn landing 1944
oil on pulpboard
Sir James and Lady Cruthers Collection, Perth
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Grace Cossington SmithCentre of a city c. 1925
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By the beginning of 1924 Grace Cossington Smith was fi nding
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 fi rst 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 affi rmation
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 fi rst 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 fi
gures.
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 fi nd the vanishing
point.
C I T Y L I F E
Grace Cossington SmithCentre of a city c. 1925 oil on canvas on
hardboard
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney © AGNSW
Photographed by Jenni Carter for AGNSW
Study for Centre of a city c. 1925 pencil on paper sketchbook 10
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1976
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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, unifi cation and progress at a time of fi
nancial 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 magnifi cence of
this structure.
The horizontal collection of bushes in the foreground creates a
fi rm 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.
C I T Y L I F E
Grace Cossington SmithThe Bridge in-curve c. 1930
tempera on cardboard
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Presented by the National Gallery Society of Victoria 1967
Working drawing for The Bridge in-curve 1930 pencil and coloured
pencil National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1976
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Grace Cossington Smith has often been associated with the
introduction of modernism to Australian art. Characteristics of
modernism include simplifi ed compositions, decorative fl atness,
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 defi ning simplifi ed forms and dynamic,
often asymmetrically balanced compositions place her fi rmly 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 simplifi ed
and fl attened, 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.
The fi gures, 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.
C I T Y L I F E
Grace Cossington SmithThe Lacquer Room 1935–36
oil on paperboard on plywood
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney © AGNSW
Photographed by Christopher Snee for AGNSW
Study for The Lacquer Room c. 1935 pencil on paper sketchbook 14
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1976
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Grace Cossington SmithEastern Road, Turramurra c. 1926
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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
specifi c 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
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 fi elds, 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.
L A N D S C A P E
Grace Cossington SmithEastern Road, Turramurra c. 1926
watercolour over pencil on paperboard
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Bequest of Mervyn Horton 1984
Study for Eastern Road, Turramurra c. 1926 pencil on paper
sketchbook 10 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased
1976
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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, fl ower 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 fi rst two panels illustrate fl owers 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?
L A N D S C A P E
Grace Cossington SmithFour 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
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Grace Cossington SmithPoinsettias 1931
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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 fl owers 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 affi rmation of life.
Lily growing in a fi eld by the sea c. 1927 has a strange iconic
quality. Cropped from their leaves, the large blossoms fi ll 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 fl ower paintings. Similarly
unconventional, the closely focused dusky red and white petals of
Hippeastrums growing 1931 fi ll the frame.
Cossington Smith often painted fl owers. Her sense of structure,
combined with the delicate quality of Australian native fl ora
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 fl
owers is that they are extremely light … they have an atmosphere of
their own … very beautiful and light’.
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 fl owers an important subject for this artist? Discuss
the symbolic nature of fl ower paintings.
F L O W E R S
Grace Cossington SmithPoinsettias 1931
oil on pulpboard
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Ivor Francis Bequest Fund 1995
Hippeastrums growing 1931 oil on pulpboard Private
collection
Lily growing in a fi eld by the sea c. 1927 oil on pulpboard
Private collection Photographed by Brenton McGeachie for NGA
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Grace Cossington SmithChurch interior c. 1941–42
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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 affl uent. 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 signifi cant 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 fi rst 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 sacrifi ce.
Visual analysis
The sense of order in Church interior is created by careful
geometric drawing. The female fi gure 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?
R E L I G I O N
Grace Cossington SmithChurch 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
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Grace Cossington SmithInterior with wardrobe mirror 1955
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During 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 fi rst 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 refl
ected 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 refl ect 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
refl ects 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 fl oor
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 fl at 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.
I N T E R I O R S
Grace Cossington SmithInterior with wardrobe mirror 1955
oil on canvas on paperboard
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney © AGNSW
Photographed by Ray Woodbury for AGNSW
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Grace Cossington SmithInterior in yellow 1962, 1964
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Since 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 signifi cance 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-defi
ning 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 may have refl ected her sense of liberation, freed from the
pressures of having to prove herself. These late interiors with
their brilliant use 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 fi nished the painting two years after beginning
it, and it is tempting to read into the enclosed feel of the room
something of her confi nement during this time.
Visual analysis
The angled bed and chair dominate the foreground of this
dramatically glowing painting, with the strong diagonal of the fl
oor 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 infl uence Cossington Smith?
I N T E R I O R S
Grace Cossington SmithInterior in yellow 1962, 1964
oil on composition board
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1965
Study for A passageway at Church Cottage, Bowral 1911–12 pencil
on paper sketchbook 2 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased 1976
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Grace Cossington SmithTop deck, the Arawa, Shaw Savill Line c.
1949
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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 fi rst trip was with her father and older sister, Mabel,
in 1912 when Cossington Smith was 19. During this time she briefl y
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 fi lled
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 fi lled many sketchbooks
with drawings, 52 of which are in the collection of the National
Gallery of Australia. Many of these sketchbooks are fi lled with
sketches made during her second trip abroad and a number are fi
nished 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 signifi cance of drawing in the art of Grace
Cossington Smith.
•Discuss the difference between a fi nished drawing and a
sketch. Look at Top Deck, the Arawa, Shaw Savill Line in this
context.
T R A V E L
Grace Cossington SmithTop deck, the Arawa, Shaw Savill Line c.
1949
ink and pen, pencil, and coloured pencil
sketchbook 25 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased
1976