Grace Cossington Smith - National Gallery of Australia

PORTRAITS
Grace Cossington Smith
Study of a head: self portrait 1916
oil on canvas on board
The Holmes à Court Collection,
Heytesbury Pty Ltd, Perth
The portraits by Grace Cossington Smith are intimate, descriptive and perceptive. She was not
interested in producing large, formally posed portraits. Members of her family sitting and reading,
friends, and children of friends were the subjects of her gentle, intuitive portraits. Many studies of her
family lounging in cane armchairs fi ll her sketchbooks; she delighted in the interplay between the
lineal structure of the chair and the soft silhouette of the body.
Painted as an art student in her early twenties, Study of a head: self portrait 1916 suggests the
young artist’s vitality and determination, along with her love of colour and structure. Cossington
Smith’s sensuous use of vibrant blues, greens and rosy pinks, along with the dramatic passages of
light and dark anticipate her later work. Her characteristic style, with fan-like brushstrokes, had not
developed at this early stage of her career; instead she uses bright dabs of colour, demonstrating
her awareness of British and European Post-Impressionism gleaned primarily from her classes with
Anthony Dattilo Rubbo at his atelier in Rowe Street, Sydney.
Visual analysis
Note the use of parallel diagonals to animate the composition. The collar, jaw line, nose and
parting in her hair form diagonals that counterpoint the strong compositional line from bottom left
to top right. Her dark hair is balanced by the dark, bottom right-hand corner. The artist separates
the cheek from the background with a bright edge of light paint.
Discussion points
•What characteristics of Post-Impressionism are evident in this portrait?
•What does this portrait convey about the artist?