Jane Sutherland, artist, 1853-1928

One of the artists whose work I most admire is Jane Sutherland.

Jane Sutherland 1853-1928 was an artist and art teacher.

At age seventeen, her father George Sutherland, who was a drawing instructor and artist exhibiting with the Victorian Academy of Arts, encouraged her to enroll in the National Gallery Schools. She studied under Thomas Clark, 1871-1875, Oswald Rose Campbell, 1877-1881. Eugene von Guerard in 1877, and George Frederick Folingsby, 1882-1885.

She is an artist of the same era as Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin and painted with them at the Box Hill artist Camp. See:- her work 'Obstruction, Box Hill' in 1887.

She exhibited in 1878 with the Victorian Academy of Arts and the Australian Artists' Association. She later exhibited with the Victorian Artists' Society. She also exhibited works in the federal exhibitions in 1899, 1903 and 1906 at the South Australian Society of Arts, and along with Clara Southern, and May Vale, exhibited in the First Exhibition of Australian Women's Work held in the Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne, 1907.

Jane Sutherland, Clara Southern, May Vale and Jane Price also exhibited together in a 'Private Exhibition of Pictures' held in November 1905 in Frederick McCubbin's home, in Shipley Street, South Yarra. Fredrick McCubbin was ‘gentleman’ artist of whom I have a great deal of respect. Many of the male artists. One in particular, went out of their way to strive to prevent private art galleries hanging the work of the great woman artist’s of the day.

Fredrick McCubbin’s strove to correct some of the professional disadvantages female artists encountered. He was ridiculed by his male counterparts for both this and his devotion to his family.

Jane Sutherland and her close friend, Clara Southern, were pioneers of the plein-air movement, and they sought to advance the professional standing of women artists. Jane Sutherland was considered the leading woman artist of the Heidelberg School.

Jane Sutherland Biography
Jane Sutherland - Obstruction, 1887
Jane Sutherland - Girl in a Paddock, c. 1890
Jane Sutherland - The Mushroom Gatherers, c. 1895
The Creek, 1895
Jane Sutherland - Daydream, c. 1895
Field Naturalists, 1896.
A Cabbage Garden, 1896
Emanuel Phillips Fox - A Love Story, c. 1903
Jane Sutherland - Portrait of Margaret Sutherland as a Young Girl, c. 1905

Heidelberg School Background

Around 1904, Jane Sutherland suffered a mild stroke, after this, she stopped painting large on location landscapes and adapted to painting small oils and pastels, of her garden local surroundings and portraits.

It was during this time she painted the beautiful 'Portrait of Margaret Sutherland as a Young Girl,' c.1905. She continued painting, exhibiting and teaching art, with the assistance of a family member, up 1911.

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I travel extensively to draw inspiration for my paintings and writing from life experience.
You will discover my Australian rural-lit novels at www.rural-lit.com

​Ryn Shell.