Agnes Noyes Goodsir (18 June 1864 – 11 August 1939) was an Australian

portrait painter Portrait Painting is a Hierarchy of genres, genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commissi ...

who lived in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.

Biography

Goodsir was born in

Portland, Victoria Portland is a city in Victoria, Australia, and is the oldest European settlement in the state. It is also the main urban centre in the Shire of Glenelg and is located on Portland Bay. As of the 2021 census the population was 10,016, increas ...

, Australia, one of eleven children born to David James Cook Goodsir, Commissioner of Customs at

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, and Elizabeth Archer (''née'' Tomlins). Her early art training started with Arthur T. Woodward at the

Bendigo School of Mines and Industries The Bendigo School of Mines was established in Bendigo, Australia in 1873 to provide technical education, predominantly for the mining industry. It was then known as the ''Bendigo School of Mines and Industries'' from 1883 to 1959, ''Bendigo Techn ...

from 1898 to 1899, and in 1899 some of her work was raffled in

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, mak ...

to partly finance her study in Paris. The years following World War I saw a virtual exodus of Australian artists on a sort of

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tu ...

to Paris, all intent on being part of the explosion of the arts taking place there. Painters like

Rupert Bunny Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny (29 September 186425 May 1947) was an Australian painter. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, he achieved success and critical acclaim as an expatriate in '' fin-de-siècle'' Paris. He gained an honourable mentio ...

, Stella Bowen and

Max Meldrum Duncan Max Meldrum (3 December 1875 – 6 June 1955) was a Scottish-born Australian artist and art teacher, best known as the founder of Australian tonalism, a representational painting style that became popular in Melbourne during the interwa ...

were drawn there by the appeal of the

Left Bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

. Others like

Margaret Preston Margaret Rose Preston (29 April 1875 – 28 May 1963) was an Australian painter and printmaker who is regarded as one of Australia's leading modernists of the early 20th century. In her quest to foster an Australian "national art", she was als ...

and Grace Crowley were inspired to develop in new directions by post-war Parisian art. Goodsir attended the Académie Delécluse, the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the numbe ...

(under

Jean-Paul Laurens Jean-Paul Laurens (; 28 March 1838 – 23 March 1921) was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style. Biography Laurens was born in Fourquevaux and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alex ...

) and then the Académie Colarossi. From about 1912 she shuttled between London and Paris, but finally settled in Paris in 1921 at 18 rue de l'Odéon. During her time in Paris Goodsir painted portraits of cosmopolitan women including her partner, Rachel Dunne, nicknamed Cherry. ''The Parisienne'', a portrait of Cherry was painted around 1924. Her work was acclaimed and exhibited at the New Salon, the

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...

, and the

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA; ; en, National Society of Fine Arts) was the term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions. 1862 Es ...

in Paris as well as at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purp ...

and the Royal Institute in London. On a short visit to Australia in 1927, she exhibited at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney and the Fine Arts Gallery in Melbourne. In 1938, four of her oils were shown at the sesquicentennial exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She was a member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Goodsir died in Paris, France in 1939. Goodsir's work showed strong composition and technique, favouring oils over watercolours. Despite turning out a large number of still lifes and interiors, her forté was portraits, including Katharine Goodson,

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...

Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, (17 February 18645 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the d ...

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ar ...

, Dame Eadith Walker, Countess Pinci and Italian leader

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...

Collections

Works are held in: * the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited ar ...

- ''The letter'', ''(Woman reading)'' * the Bendigo Art Gallery * the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in t ...

- ''In a Latin Quarter studio'' and ''The Parisienne''. * the Art Gallery of New South Wales - ''Chinese skirt'' * the

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establis ...

- ''A. B. Paterson, Banjo''

Legacy

The Goodsir Scholarship awarded by the Bendigo Art Gallery is named in memory of her. In 1978 a street in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm was named Goodsir Place in her honour.

Gallery

Agnes Goodsir 1864-1939 selfportrait.jpg, self portrait (circa 1910) Goodsir Woman reading.jpg, Woman reading (circa 1910) Agnes Goodsir02.jpg, Hydrangeas Agnes Goodsir03.jpg, Girl with Cigarette (1925) Agnes Goodsir07.jpg, The Parisienne (circa 1924) Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, 1927 Goodsir.jpg, Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, 1927

Biography

Collections

Legacy

Gallery

References

Further reading