Eveline Syme (26 October 1888 – 6 June 1961) was an Australian artist associated with the Grosvenor School of Modern Art, and an advocate for women's post-secondary education.

Early life

Eveline Winifred Syme was born in Thames Ditton,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England, daughter of Joseph Cowen Syme and Laura Blair Syme. She was raised in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, where she was an early student of Melbourne Girls Grammar. Her father was a newspaper publisher in that city, as were her grandfather

Ebenezer Syme Ebenezer Syme (15 September 1825 – 13 March 1860) was a Scottish Australians, Scottish-Australian journalist, proprietor and manager of ''The Age''. Biography Syme was born at North Berwick, Scotland, third son of George Alexander Syme, sc ...

(proprietor of ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

''), and William Spowers, the father of her friend and colleague, Ethel Spowers. Eveline Syme returned to England to study classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, but women were not granted degrees from Cambridge in her time, so she went back to Melbourne to earn an education degree.

Career

Syme studied art in Paris with M. Denis at La Grand Chaumiere in 1922/1923 and Melbourne, often in the company of Spowers. She had her first solo show in Melbourne in 1925, and another in 1928, showing works in various media, many of them

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

studies, though she also painted in oils and drew in pencil. She and Spowers enrolled at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in 1929, to learn more about linocuts. They were joined here by Dorrit Black, studying linocut printing with Claude Flight. By the following year Syme was back in Melbourne, exhibiting and speaking about modern printmaking. Along with Spowers she was associated with George Bell's "Contemporary Art Group." Late in life, she was on the executive committee of the National Gallery Society of Victoria. Syme was also involved in efforts during the 1930s to build a women's college at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, and served as president of the University Women's College council in the 1940s. Syme died in 1961, age 72. She was buried at Brighton Cemetery."Eveline Winifred Syme," Brighton Cemetery Historic Interments, http://brightoncemetery.com/HistoricInterments/150Names/symee.htm Eveline was a founding member of the University Women's College at the University of Melbourne."Women Artists. Works From the Permanent Collection" catalogue, University Gallery, The University of Melbourne, July 26 - August 30 1983. Page 13. Art and Artists Files, held in the National Gallery of Australia Research and Archive Collection. She left much of her estate to the University Women's College.

References

External links

Eveline Winifred Syme
ustralian art and artists file ''

State Library Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Syme, Eveline Winifred 1888 births 1961 deaths Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Painters from Melbourne Australian printmakers Australian women artists People from Thames Ditton Alumni of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art Australian women printmakers People educated at Melbourne Girls Grammar English emigrants to colonial Australia Australian people of Scottish descent Burials at Brighton General Cemetery 20th-century Australian women artists Australian women's rights activists