William George Wilson (1849-1924)

Anglo-Australian colonial artist William George Wilson is noteworthy both for his Queensland origins and for his cosmopolitan upbringing. The eldest child of a very successful Scottish squatter, William Wilson, he was born on 18 April 1849 in either Brisbane or on his father's first landholding in Moreton Bay, Mt Flinders or Peak Mountain Station near Ipswich. When he was five years old he travelled with his family to Britain and spent a number of years in Edinburgh before returning to Brisbane in the 1860s at which time his family, consisting by then of six children in all (four girls and one other boy), resided at Kangaroo Point. During the 1860s his father sold the Peak Mountain property, becoming in 1869 the lessee of Pilton Station on the Darling Downs. This large estate became a very important part of the family's identity, bolstering its social standing and providing a comfortable income.

Wilson probably received his secondary education in Britain as was customary among this social class, and the pattern of comings and goings between Queensland and Britain continued in his adult years.

It is interesting that Wilson embarked on his artistic studies only after the death of his mother in early 1883, evidence perhaps that she disapproved of an artistic career. Certainly his father's death in May 1887 impacted on his studies since he then had to assume responsibility for his four unmarried sisters and the family business interests. He married in 1889, travelled to Queensland with his new wife the next year, and spent several years overseeing the running of Pilton Station while also trying his hand at developing a career as an artist in Toowoomba and Brisbane. The small poetic oil Darling Downs landscapes date from this period and demonstrate the results of his professional training. They are particularly interesting for their depiction of the dry inland landscape in this period of severe drought. In 1892 Wilson began exhibiting with the Queensland Art Society (QAS) (newly formed only in 1887) along with Godfrey Rivers (1859-1925), another London-trained artist who had become the Art Master at the Brisbane Technical College in 1890. A friendship seems to have developed between the two men.

William George Wilson, Summer Evening, Pilton, Darling Downs, Queensland c.1890s Oil on panel 19.7 x 31.8cm

Norah Gurdon (1881-1974)

Many of Australia’s most important and innovative women artists were born and/or grew up in the Bayside suburbs of Melbourne. Foremost in this group were - Jessie Traill, Janet Cumbrae Stewart, Norah Gurdon, Clarice Beckett, Jean P. Sutherland, Jessie Evans and Margaret Baskerville.

Jessie Traill, Janet Cumbrae Stewart and Norah Gurdon’s lives were linked. They were all born into wealthy families in the early 1880s and lived near each other – Jessie at Westra in South Road, Janet at Montrose in Were Street and Norah at Elmhurst in Church Street, Brighton. They attended the National Gallery of Victoria Art School and studied under the same teachers – Bernard Hall, John Mather and Frederick McCubbin, who lived for a time in nearby New Street. They were active members of the same clubs and organizations, and Jessie and Janet worked together on mural panels for the children’s ward of the Homeopathic Hospital, later Prince Henry’s. All remained unmarried and travelled extensively overseas. During the First World War, Norah and Jessie served as nurses in France, Jessie for three and a half years. Her portrait in a nurse’s uniform, painted by Janet Cumbrae Stewart, is in the NGV Australia. Norah Gurdon, who was a technically accomplished artist, acted as a bridge to the Australian modernists of the post-war era.

While Melbourne-based, Norah Gurdon’s extensive work in Europe engendered an international outlook and in this respect she emulates artists such as Ethel Carrick Fox.

Nora Gurdon, A Suffolk mill, c. 1920 Oil on board 31 x 22 cm

Frank Payne and Jessie Traill

In contact with many prominent women artists, Payne numbered among her friends Jessie Traill, Ethel Carrick Fox and the writer Dorothea Mackellar. She promoted the careers of young artists such as Daphne Mayo and Lloyd Rees. Payne had joined the Society of Women Painters in 1919, served on the society's committees and council for many years, and, from 1921, contributed to every annual exhibition.

This is a portrait of her friend Jessie Traill in fancy dress. Although undated it was most likely painted in the mid-1920s.

Frank Payne, Sketchbook Pages

Frank Payne, Sketchbook pages c.1915 Pencil on paper. Cleveland, Moreton Bay, and other locations in SE Qld 

Frank Payne (1885-1976)

I first came across the work of Australian artist, Frank Payne in 1984, when I bought a small panel painting, some sketchbook drawings and a portrait of her friend, Jessie Traill.

Frances (Frank) Mallalieu Payne (1885-1976) artist and illustrator, was born on 7 May 1885 at Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, daughter of English-born parents Arthur Peel Payne, a hospital administrator, and his wife Julia Finch, née Batchellor. Frank (as she was known) was educated at All Hallows' Convent and Brisbane Technical College where she trained as a portrait painter under Godfrey Rivers and learned etching and block-making. She exhibited with the Queensland Art Society. Accompanied by her mother, she sailed for England in March 1905. In Paris for nine months, she enrolled at the Académie Colarossi, and then studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. At 'La Grande Chaumière' she was taught black-and-white work by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen. Back in London, she worked in Frank Brangwyn's studio and did her most serious study there. During the summers she travelled extensively through England (1905), Brittany, France (1906), and elsewhere on the Continent (1907).

For two and a half years Payne had written regular articles for the Brisbane Courier about her experiences. Returning to Brisbane in September 1907, she began freelance design work for the Courier and the Bulletin; she also produced commercial catalogues for Finney Isles & Co.'s department store and illustrations for the Queenslander. The Australasian Union Steam Navigation Company sent her on cruises so that she could write and illustrate their travel brochures.

By 1916 Payne was living in Sydney. She illustrated catalogues for David Jones Ltd's and Farmer & Co. Ltd's department stores, drew covers for the Australian Woman's Mirror, and drove her own motorcar. At Neutral Bay on 24 August 1921 she married with Presbyterian rights Andrew Patrick Clinton, a 36-year-old superintendent stevedore from Ireland and a divorcee. They had two sons, but separated in 1928. Continuing to be known professionally as Frank Payne (though often referred to as Mrs A. P. Clinton) she supported herself and her children from her catalogues, magazine covers and part-time work for the Bulletin. Reputedly, she was among the nation's highest paid women.

In contact with many prominent women artists, Payne numbered among her friends Jessie Traill, Ethel Carrick Fox and the writer Dorothea Mackellar. She promoted the careers of young artists such as Daphne Mayo and Lloyd Rees. Payne had joined the Society of Women Painters in 1919, served on the society's committees and council for many years, and, from 1921, contributed to every annual exhibition. Her oils and watercolours were frequently studies of children (including her own) in unposed settings, as well as landscape and genre paintings. Founding president (1934) of the Women's Industrial Arts Society, she was awarded King George VI's coronation medal in 1937.

Now an almost forgotten figure in Australian art between the wars, I hope to find more of her early Brisbane creative work.