Grace Cossington Smith - National Gallery of Australia

GRACE COSSINGTON SMITH BIOGRAPHICAL TIMELINE
1890 Ernest Augustus Smith marries Grace Fisher
1891–97 The births of Mabel (1891), Grace (1892), Margaret (Madge, 1896), and twins Gordon and
Charlotte (Diddy, 1897)
1910 At the age of 18 Cossington Smith begins drawing classes at Anthony Dattilo Rubbo’s atelier
in Sydney
1912–14 Cossington Smith, her father and sister Mabel travel to England; Cossington Smith attends art
classes at Winchester Art School
1914 Cossington Smith returns to Sydney and begins painting in oils at Dattilo Rubbo’s atelier
1915 The sock knitter is painted and exhibited at an exhibition held by the Royal Art Society of New South Wales
1916 Study of a head: self portrait is painted
1920 The Smiths buy a property in Turrumurra and name it Cossington; a studio for Cossington Smith is
built in the garden
1922 Portrait of Diddy drawn around this time
1925 Centre of a city (a work in which the tonal influence of Max Meldrum can be seen) painted
around this time
1926 A return to bright colour can be noted in Cossington Smith’s works; she makes a break with her
teacher, Dattilo Rubbo; becomes interested in theosophy and the symbolic importance of colour;
Eastern Road, Turrumurra is painted around this time; Cossington Smith exhibits for the first time with
the Contemporary Group
1927 Lily growing in a field by the sea painted around this time
1928 Cossington Smith holds her first solo exhibition at Walter Taylor’s Grosvenor Galleries
1929 Four panels for a screen: loquat tree, gum and wattle trees, waterfall, picnic in a gully is painted
1930 Bridge in-curve is painted around this time
1931 Cossington Smith’s mother, Grace, dies; Cossington Smith paints Poinsettias and Hippeastrums
growing
1932 Cossington Smith holds her first solo exhibition at the Macquarie Galleries (this gallery would
become her main exhibiting venue)
1935–36 The Lacquer Room is painted
1938 Cossington Smith’s father, Ernest, dies and Cossington Smith moves her studio into the main house;
Cossington Smith undertakes many painting trips into the countryside with fellow artists Helen Stewart,
Enid Cambridge and Treania Smith
1940 Cossington Smith volunteers as an air-raid warden at Turramurra
1941–42 Church Interior is painted
1944 Dawn landing is painted
1947 Cossington Smith elected to full membership of the Society of Artists, Sydney
1948 Cossington Smith sails for England with her sisters Madge and Diddy (Madge remained in England
permanently); during the trip, Cossington Smith draws Top deck, the Arawa, Shaw Saville Line
1949 Cossington Smith travels to Italy and then back to England
1951 Cossington Smith returns to Sydney
1954 The first of Cossington Smith’s large interiors, Interior with verandah doors, is painted
1962 Diddy dies; Cossington Smith begins painting Interior in yellow before breaking her hip, which is
followed by a long convalescence (subsequently, Interior in yellow was not completed until 1964)
1973 Cossington Smith is awarded an Order of the British Empire for services to art in the New Year’s
Honours List; a retrospective exhibition of Cossington Smith’s work, organised by the Art Gallery
of New South Wales, is held and tours major capital cities
1978 Cossington Smith moves from Cossington to Dalcross Hospital and then to the Milton Nursing Home,
Roseville
1983 Cossington Smith awarded the Order of Australia
1984 Cossington Smith dies, 20 December, at the age of 92