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Freda Robertshaw

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Freda Rhoda Robertshaw
Born1916 (1916)
Sydney, Australia
Died1997 (aged 80–81)
Sydney, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Known forPainting
Movementstylised art deco

Freda Rhoda Robertshaw (1916–1997) was an Australian artist and painter of neoclassical figures and landscapes.

Biography

Born and raised in Sydney, she trained in commercial art at East Sydney Technical College until 1937, studying drawing, life drawing, oil painting and watercolour. Robertshaw became an apprentice and partner of artist Charles Meere who had been her life drawing teacher. Both were conservative academic artists, painting the human figure in a studied neoclassical style.

Painters Arthur Murch and Napier Waller, and photographers Max Dupain and Olive Cotton were Australian contemporaries with a similar vision.

Career

In 1940, the arts writer for The Bulletin declared that Robertshaw's nude painting "the best in the show". Robertshaw was the first Australian woman artist to paint a fully nude self-portrait with Standing Nude (1944), which was also her last figure painting, representing her break from Meere's influence. Standing Nude was regarded as "the star attraction" of the 2001 Modern Australian Women exhibition, which debuted at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

In 1940 she painted Australian Beach Scene (1940), a feminised response to Meere's famous 1940 work Australian Beach Patter. In Robertshaws' work, the gender roles are reversed and women subjects predominate. This could reflect the changing Australian society as WWII evolved in 1940.

In 1944, Robertshaw completed a standing nude self-portrait. After completing this work, Robertshaw left Meere's studio.

Robertshaw later experimented with landscape and surrealism; one of her surrealist works, Composition (1947), was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia.


In 1998, Australian Beach Scene (1940), a feminised response to Meere's famous 1940 work Australian Beach Pattern, sold at Sotheby's for $A475,500, a record for an Australian woman artist at the time.

Collections

Robertshaw works are held in the Art Gallery of New South Wales , the National Gallery of Australia the Gruthers Collection of Women's Art, The University of Western Australia, Perth.

Further reading

  • Sun, Sea and Standing Tall, Leanne Santorro, LOOK, Art Gallery of NSW

References

  1. Robertshaw, Freda Thoda. "Freda Rhoda Robertshaw". Design and Art Australia Online. Retrieved 31 August 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "Studio still life, circa 1940 by Freda Robertshaw". www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  3. "Vol. 61 No. 3161 (11 Sep 1940)". Trove. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  4. James, Bruce (18 June 2003). "Pictures of restraint make an impact all their own", The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  5. ^ Philip McCouat, "The origins of an Australian Art Icon", Journal of Art in Society, http://www.artinsociety.com
  6. ^ "Studio still life, circa 1940 by Freda Robertshaw". www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  7. ROBERTSHAW, Freda | Composition, National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  8. Maslen, Geoff (30 July 2002). "Women push through the canvas ceiling", The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  9. Robertshaw, Freda. "Composition". Item held by National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  10. Quin, Sally (2020). Know My Name. Canberra, ACT, Australia: National Gallery of Australia. p. 314. ISBN 9780642334879.

External links

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