Jessie Traill
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Jessie Constance Alicia Traill (29 July 1881 – 15 May 1967) was an Australian
printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique ...
. Trained by
Frederick McCubbin Frederick McCubbin (25 February 1855 – 20 December 1917) was an Australian artist, art teacher and prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, McCubb ...
at the
National Gallery of Victoria Art School The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years. It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery S ...
, and by painter and printmaker
Frank Brangwyn Sir Frank William Brangwyn (12 May 1867 – 11 June 1956) was a Welsh artist, painter, watercolourist, printmaker, illustrator and designer. Brangwyn worked in a wide range of artistic fields. As well as paintings and drawings, he produc ...
in London, Traill worked in England and France in the period immediately preceding World War I. During the war she served in hospitals with the
Voluntary Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...
. Traill is best known for a series of prints created in the early 1930s depicting the construction of the
Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North ...
. Critic and art historian
Sasha Grishin Alexander "Sasha" Dmitrievich Grishin is an Australian art historian, art critic and curator based in Victoria and Canberra. He is known as an art critic, and for establishing the academic discipline of art history at the Australian National Un ...
describes her as "one of the great Australian artists of the 20th century".


Early life

Jessie Traill was born in
Brighton, Victoria Brighton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Bayside Local government areas of Victo ...
, on 29 July 1881. Her father was Scotland-born George Hamilton Traill, who had administered a vanilla plantation in the Seychelles, before becoming a bank manager in Victoria; her mother Jessie Neilley was Tasmanian. Traill was one of four daughters of George and Jessie, all of them educated at a boarding school in Switzerland, where they learned French and German. The family were deeply religious
Anglicans Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
; two of Traill's sisters would later join religious orders, while Margaret would become a carver. Returning to Australia, Traill in 1900 studied under
John Mather (artist) John Mather (1848 – 18 February 1916) was a Scottish-Australian plein-air painter and etcher.Judy Blyth, John (1848? - 1916), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, 1986, pp 438-439. Retrieved 2010-04-01 John Mather the Artist– A ...
at his Austral Art School. In 1903 she kept a notebook of her lessons commenting on the etchings within it as they progress through various states. The notebook details her active engagement in the print making process and the tuition of John Mather. Together with jottings of sales, news clippings and a congratulatory letter from John Mather, her early success with the medium is documented. Jessie Traill also studied at the
National Gallery of Victoria Art School The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years. It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery S ...
from 1902 to 1906, where she was taught by a leading member of the
Heidelberg School The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. It has been described as Australian impressionism. Melbourne art critic Sidney Dickinson coined the term in an 1891 review of works by Arthur Streeton and Walter ...
,
Frederick McCubbin Frederick McCubbin (25 February 1855 – 20 December 1917) was an Australian artist, art teacher and prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, McCubb ...
. Her fellow students were mostly women and included
Hilda Rix Nicholas Hilda Rix Nicholas (, later Wright, 1 September 1884 – 3 August 1961) was an Australian artist. Born in the Victoria (Australia), Victorian city of Ballarat, she studied under a leading Australian Impressionism, Australian Impressionist ...
, Norah Gurdon, Ruth Sutherland,
Dora Wilson Dora Lynnell Wilson (31 August 1883 – 21 November 1946) was a British-born Australian artist, best known in her adopted country of Australia for her etchings and street scenes. Early life Dora Lynnell Wilson was born on 31 August 1883 in New ...
, and
Vida Lahey Frances Vida Lahey MBE ( /vaɪdə leɪiː/ '' VEYE-də LAY-ee;'' 26 August 1882 – 29 August 1968) was a prominent artist in Queensland, Australia. She exhibited widely from 1902 until 1965. Early life Frances Vida Lahey was born on 26 August ...
. In March 1906, Traill and her sister Minna, together with her father, sailed for England, while her two older sisters, Kathleen and Elsie, remained in Victoria. George died while they were travelling in 1907, and is buried in Rome. Traill studied in London under Anglo-Welsh painter and printmaker
Frank Brangwyn Sir Frank William Brangwyn (12 May 1867 – 11 June 1956) was a Welsh artist, painter, watercolourist, printmaker, illustrator and designer. Brangwyn worked in a wide range of artistic fields. As well as paintings and drawings, he produc ...
, as well as taking classes in summer with him, in Belgium and the Netherlands. She was the most accomplished student from Australia that he taught.


Early career, 1908 to 1931

Traill's first notable successes were in 1909, when works by the artist were hung at the
Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...
and London's
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 ...
, while her first solo show was opened in Melbourne. She was successful again in 1914 with work hung at the Royal Academy. When war broke out in 1914 Traill, like fellow artist
Iso Rae Isobel Rae (18 August 1860 – 16 March 1940) was an Australian-born impressionism, impressionist painter who lived and worked most of her life in Europe. After training at Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria Art School, where she s ...
, joined the
Voluntary Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...
. She worked in hospitals, including at a convalescent facility in
Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, sharing its SW15 postcode with neighbouring Putney and Kingston Vale, and takes up a far western strip, running north to south, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large counc ...
in May 1915, then later in a military hospital in
Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...
. Traill and Rae became the only Australian women artists to portray the war while in France. When in 1918 Australia first appointed official war artists, sixteen men were chosen; Traill was not included. Back in Australia, Traill in 1921 became a member of the Australian Painter-Etchers' Society, and entered its exhibitions. Her works from this period reflected her interest in both
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
and in the woodblock printing of Japan.


Sydney Harbour Bridge series

When the Australian Painter-Etchers Society in 1932 held its only thematic exhibition, ''Sydney Harbour Bridge Celebrations'', Traill contributed a series of seven prints. The works comprised six etchings completed across the period 1927 to 1931, and a coloured aquatint created after construction was finished in 1932. These have become Traill's best known and most highly regarded images. At the time they were created, the artist
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 ...
observed:
Melbourne should be proud of that fine draughtswoman and etcher Miss Jessie Traill. By incessant labour and observation she has won for herself a high position by her fine sense of design and her most capable rendering of very difficult subjects. She dares to do a large drawing composed of enormous curves and angles and she does it successfully. There is no other artist in Australia today who can compare with her in the fine and varied exhibition of Sydney Bridge and other designs which will open today at the Athenaeum Gallery. Her drawings of the Harbour Bridge from 1927 to 1931 form a triumphant and original record of that mighty masterpiece of steel, and it would be well if the finest of them were acquired and housed as a national collection and an artistic record of the structure.
Describing the series as "perhaps the finest representations of this genre",
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 th ...
curator Roger Butler singled out her ''Building the Harbour Bridge VI: Nearly complete, June 1931'' for comment, with its "towering, skeletal structure framed by foreground cranes". Sandy Kirby, writing for ''The National Women's Art Book'' in the mid-1990s, focussed on the earlier, fourth print in the series, ''Building the Harbour Bridge IV: The Ant's Progress'', noting how it drew attention "to the technical feat of building, reflected as much in the viewpoint Traill selected as in the very medium of etching itself, with its linear emphasis echoing engineering drawing". Reviewing an exhibition of Traill's works, art critic Christopher Allen, writing for ''
The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...
'' in 2013, considered the images of Sydney Harbour Bridge to be "her greatest achievement".


Later career, 1932 to 1967

In 1935, Dora Wilson, artist and longstanding friend of Traill (they had studied together and shared a Melbourne studio), painted a portrait of Traill, which was acquired by the
State Library of 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 ...
. Another portrait of Traill, by Janet Cumbrae Stewart, is held by the
National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...
. Traill died on 15 May 1967 at
Emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr., and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991). ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York ...
, on the eastern fringes of Melbourne.


Technique

As a printmaker, Traill worked on zinc plates in
etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...
and
aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used ...
. Her biographer Mary Lee observed that in the 1920s Traill "worked with the largest plates that the press would take and achieved dramatic chiaroscuro". She was also a
lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...
er, a technique in which she was similarly accomplished.


Exhibitions

* 1934, to 29 September: Newman Gallery; group show with sixteen other exhibitors, including
John Shirlow John Alexander Thomas Shirlow (13 December 1869 – 22 June 1936) was an Australian artist. Shirlow was born in Sunbury, Victoria, son of Robert Shirlow, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, who had come from Ireland and followed many occupati ...
, Victor Cobb, Oscar Binder, J. C. Goodhart,
Sydney Ure Smith Sydney George Ure Smith OBE (9 January 188711 October 1949) was an Australian arts publisher, artist and promoter who "did more than any other Australian to publicize Australian art at home and overseas". Unlike most of his contemporaries, he s ...
,
Allan Jordan Allan Holder Jordan (1898–1982) was an Australian painter, designer, printmaker and teacher. Early life Allan Jordon was born in 1898 in Elsternwick, Victoria, Elsternwick, the son of Sandhurst-born customs agent James Oliver Jordan and Maud ...
, Harold Herbert, John C. Goodchild, Cyril Dillon and
Charles Nuttall Charles Nuttall (born James Charles Nuttall; 6 September 1872 – 28 November 1934) was a prolific Australian artist, writer and radio broadcaster. He spent much of his working life in Melbourne, apart from a period in New York City from 1905 ...
.


Legacy

Butler collected works by Traill throughout his tenure at 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 th ...
, which one reviewer considered was responsible for the "rediscovery of an artist previously almost unknown to the public". When the Gallery held a retrospective of her work in 2013, it described her as "a key figure in the history of Australian printmaking". Author and art critic Sasha Grishin reviewed the exhibition for ''
The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...
'', concluding that the show "reasserts the supremacy of Jessie Traill as one of the great Australian artists of the 20th century". Roger Butler observed of Traill's etchings that they were "the most poetic and technically refined prints produced in Australia before World War II".


Notes and references

Notes References Bibliography * * * *


Further reading

*


External links


Jessie Traill
at 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 ...

Papers of Jessie Traill
at the
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 ...

Jessie Traill: an artist at war
by Eve Sainsbury {{DEFAULTSORT:Traill, Jessie 1881 births 1967 deaths Australian war artists World War I artists 20th-century Australian painters Artists from Melbourne People from Brighton, Victoria Australian people of Scottish descent National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni Australian printmakers 20th-century Australian women painters Australian women of World War I