Florence Aline Rodway (11 November 1881 – 23 January 1971) was an Australian artist best known for her portraits. Born in the
Tasmania
Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
n city of
Hobart
Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...
, she was the second of six children to
Leonard Rodway
Leonard Rodway (5 October 1853 – 9 March 1936) was an English-born Australian dentist and botanist.
Early life
Rodway was born in Torquay Devon, England, the thirteenth child of Henry Barron Rodway, a dentist and inventor of the Rodway life b ...
and Louisa Susan, née Phillips. She studied painting at the Hobart Technical College (now
TasTAFE TasTAFE is a Tasmanian tertiary education body of the Australian state-based Technical and Further Education system run by the Tasmanian Government. The main campuses are located at Hobart, Warrane, Claremont, Tasmania, Claremont, Glenorchy, Tasmani ...
); after two years her work was sent to London, and she was awarded a three-year scholarship to study painting at the
Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
, London. She is best known for having painted portraits of notable figures in Australian history, including
Dame Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic lyric coloratura soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early twentieth century, and was the f ...
,
William Bridges,
J. F. Archibald
Jules François Archibald (born John Feltham Archibald, 14 January 1856 – 10 September 1919) was an Australian journalist and publisher, best known for co-founding and editing '' The Bulletin'', Australia's most popular magazine in the late 19 ...
and
Henry Lawson
Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period ...
.
Early life
Florence Aline Rodway was born in the family home on Macquarie Street,
Hobart, Tasmania
Hobart ( ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent (Tasmania), River Derwent, it is the southernmo ...
on 11 November 1881. She was the second child of six, having five brothers.
Her father was dentist and botanist
Leonard Rodway
Leonard Rodway (5 October 1853 – 9 March 1936) was an English-born Australian dentist and botanist.
Early life
Rodway was born in Torquay Devon, England, the thirteenth child of Henry Barron Rodway, a dentist and inventor of the Rodway life b ...
, an Englishman who migrated to Queensland, where he met and married Louisa Phillips, a dentist's daughter. They moved to Hobart and had five sons and a daughter.
Rodway later recalled that she drew often and well as a child, so she studied art at the Hobart Technical School, under Benjamin Shepherd.
After two years of study samples of her work were sent to London and she was awarded a four-year scholarship to study in London at the
Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
, a remarkable achievement for a Tasmanian artist, especially a woman, at that time.
She was unable to complete the course as she could not afford to live in London and so returned to Australia, moving to Sydney, where she would establish her reputation as an artist.
Early career (1906–1913)
Rodway established a studio in Sydney and continued to study, under
Sydney Long
Sydney Long (20 August 1871 – 23 January 1955) was an Australian artist. Originally inspired by the Heidelberg School of Australian impressionism, Long developed his own Symbolist approach to the Australian landscape, and by the 1910s had bec ...
at the
Julian Ashton Art School
The Julian Ashton Art School was established by Julian Ashton in 1890 as the "Academy Julian", (perhaps a reference to the Académie Julian in Paris) has been an influential art school in Australia. For a long time it was known as the Sydney Art ...
.
At one point she shared her studio with fellow student of Julian Ashton, the
Chinese-Australian
Chinese Australians () are Australians of Chinese origin. Chinese Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Chinese diaspora, and are the largest Asian Australian community. Per capita, Australia has more people of Chines ...
artist
Justine Kong Sing. She produced studies and illustrations for publications, including ''
The Lone Hand''. She joined the
Society of Artists and exhibited in the Society members' shows. She developed her mastery of pastels, for which she was widely recognised. She was one of only a few female artists to be lauded as the equal of male artists. One 1909 critic went so far as to say that gender was irrelevant in her case: 'Sex is an accident — the capacity for expressing the infinitely large or the infinitesimally little cannot be gauged by outward measurements. The soul frequently bears little relation to its case. Else, why does Florence Rodway, tall, slight and blonde, revel in peopling large spaces with the Titanic creatures of her imagination.'
The
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...
purchased work in 1910 and from then her reputation as a portraitist only grew. She completed many portraits in pastel, especially of children, whom she was considered particularly skilled at depicting. She was commissioned to create portraits of notable figures including
Dame Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic lyric coloratura soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early twentieth century, and was the f ...
and
Henry Lawson
Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period ...
.
Mid-career (1914–1930)
In 1914 she had her first solo exhibition, of 40 portraits and pastel drawings at the
Athenaeum Gallery in Melbourne. This included works lent by the owners (who were often the subjects of the works,) including
Dame Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic lyric coloratura soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early twentieth century, and was the f ...
,
Julian Ashton
Julian Rossi Ashton (27 January 185127 April 1942) was an English-born Australian artist and teacher. He is best known for founding the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney and encouraging Australian painters to capture local life and scenery ' ...
and
J. F. Archibald
Jules François Archibald (born John Feltham Archibald, 14 January 1856 – 10 September 1919) was an Australian journalist and publisher, best known for co-founding and editing '' The Bulletin'', Australia's most popular magazine in the late 19 ...
. She sat for a portrait painted by Norman Carter (in the collection of 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 ...
.) In a newspaper review of the Society of Artists' 1916 exhibition, she was commended as:
'the principal "dealer in magic and spells" due to pastel effort is Miss Florence Rodway, whose portraits are again one of the leading features of the show. The most striking example of her talent is the strong, young, handsome face of a woman full of vitality and expression, in which the flesh-tones show up admirably against the yellow, gold-tinted background. Miss Rodway's portraits of children are charming, and we like also the homely interior entitled "The New Teapot," in which the artist's fine appreciation of the pastel medium is markedly apparent.'
She was commissioned to paint portraits for major public collections. The
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...
commissioned portraits of
J. F. Archibald
Jules François Archibald (born John Feltham Archibald, 14 January 1856 – 10 September 1919) was an Australian journalist and publisher, best known for co-founding and editing '' The Bulletin'', Australia's most popular magazine in the late 19 ...
(1921) and
William Bridges (1919). The
Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national war memorial, war museum, museum and archive dedicated to all Australians who died as a result of war, including peacekeeping duties. The AWM is located in Campbell, Australian Capital Territory, C ...
commissioned portraits of
William Bridges (1920),
Henry Normand MacLaurin
Brigadier-General Henry Normand MacLaurin (31 October 1878 – 27 April 1915) was an Australian barrister and an Australian Army colonel who served in the First World War. He was shot dead by a Turkish sniper at Gallipoli, and was posthumousl ...
(1922) and Captain Walter Gilchrist (1925).
She married civil engineer Walter Moore in 1920, and had a daughter, Suzanne, in 1922. Marriage and motherhood seem to slow down her career, but she continued to paint and exhibit. She was chosen to represent Australia in 1928, with other artists including
Thea Proctor
Alethea Mary Proctor (2 October 1879 – 29 July 1966) was an Australian painter, print maker, designer and teacher who upheld the ideas of 'taste' and 'style'.
Biography
Proctor was born in Armidale, New South Wales, to William Consett Pr ...
,
Margaret Preston
Margaret Rose Preston (29 April 1875 – 28 May 1963) was an Australian painter, printmaker and writer on art who is regarded as one of Australia's leading modernists of the early 20th century. In her quest to foster an Australian "national ...
,
John Longstaff
Sir John Campbell Longstaff (10 March 1861 – 1 October 1941) was an Australian painter, war artist and a five-time winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture. Longstaff was one of the most prolific portraitists of the Edwardian period, pain ...
,
Arthur Streeton
Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (8 April 1867 – 1 September 1943) was an Australian landscape painter and a leading member of the Heidelberg School, also known as Australian Impressionism.
Early life
Streeton was born in Mount Moriac, Victoria ...
and
Hans Heysen
Sir Hans Heysen (8 October 18772 July 1968) was an Australian artist.
One of Australia's best known landscape painters, Heysen became a household name during his lifetime for his watercolours and oil paintings of the Australian bush, in pa ...
, at the London exhibition of contemporary art of the Empire at the Imperial Institute, South Kensington.
Later career (1931–1971)
Rodway and her family moved to Hobart in 1932.
She exhibited paintings in the 1934 Women Artists of Australia exhibition in Sydney and held two exhibitions with fellow Tasmanian artist
Edith Holmes at the Westminster Gallery, Melbourne, in 1948 and at the Adult Education Board, Hobart, in 1953. She showed work in the 1950–51 exhibitions of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors and continued to exhibit with
The Art Society of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Group of Painters.
She died in Hobart on 23 January 1971.
References
External links
Florence Rodway interviewed by Hazel de Berg National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
– audio recording
Florence Rodway 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:Rodway, Florence Aline
1881 births
1971 deaths
Artists from Hobart
Archibald Prize finalists
20th-century Australian women artists
20th-century Australian artists
Julian Ashton Art School alumni
19th-century Australian women