Grace Cossington Smith - National Gallery of Australia

CITY LIFE
Grace Cossington Smith
Centre of a city c. 1925
oil on canvas on hardboard
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney © AGNSW
Photographed by Jenni Carter for AGNSW
By the beginning of 1924 Grace Cossington Smith was fi nding herself isolated in Turramurra,
estranged from the city. Her brother, Gordon, was studying at Oxford, Diddy was often away from
home nursing and Madge had left Australia for the fi rst time to visit England. At the age of 30 she
was certain of her identity as an artist but felt isolated from the world at large.
Centre of a city was painted around 1925. It is an affi rmation of Cossington Smith’s status as an
artist. Technical assurance and compositional clarity convey the sombre essence of modern city life
where humans, like black ants, are dominated by featureless windows within towering, geometric
buildings. This is a ground-breaking work for Cossington Smith, as it is the fi rst painting to display the
sky as a radiant aureole. The chopped brushstrokes and colour gradations sweeping above the
hard-edged golden buildings suggest that there is more to life than the everyday 10 o’clock bustle
of Martin Place in Sydney.
Visual analysis
A sketchbook reveals at least 10 preparatory pencil studies for this
painting, which the artist only began when she felt assured of its
perspective accuracy and tonal resolution. The vanishing point is
related to the eye level of the artist and is therefore found above
the centre of the right-hand pavement, at the point where the
dark wedge of shadow overlaps the most distant building. All of the
diagonal lines lead to this point. The little white rectangle above this
point also attracts the eye to this part of the painting. The foreground
is in deep shadow and is populated by a cart with horses, which
visually connects with the rectangle of the far building. The artist
emphasises the illusion of distance by sweeping the wide road down
and up and reducing the size of the fi gures.
Discussion points
•How does Grace Cossington Smith reveal her attitude to the city in
this painting?
Study for Centre of a city c. 1925
pencil on paper sketchbook 10
National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra Purchased 1976
•Photocopy the image and outline all of the perspectival/diagonal
lines. See if you can fi nd the vanishing point.