Clarice Beckett . Politically Incorrect is the title of this 1999 Ian Potter Museum of Art book , by Rosalind Hollinrake, in the latest Douglas Stewart Fine Books ,Melbourne, art list.
During her career Beckett produced thousands of paintings , mainly sea and beachscapes , rural and suburban scenes , although good at portraiture . She was criticised at times for fuzzy , foggy views of Melbourne .
Smug residents of sunny Sydney might say she was spot on in her depiction of mouldy Melbourne and its weather .
She was a prominent member of the Australian tonalism movement led by artist and art teacher Max Meldrum. The group favoured painting in bad weather .
Born at Casterton on March 21 , l887, she was the daughter of a bank manager and showed artistic skills at school.
In a 1924 catalogue for an exhibition of 20 Melbourne artists she explained her aim was to give sincere and truthful representation of the beauty of Nature , using the charm of light and shade to give as near as possible an exact illusion of reality.
A critic in The Age newspaper wrote :
Despite this criticism of her style , she became known as " the daughter of Monet "-he being the leading French artist in the impressionist movement , really a great accolade
When her parents became ill, Beckett ran the house and could only get out in the early morning and late afternoon to paint , using a wheeled easel .
In 1935 , painting the sea at Beaumaris during a storm , she was drenched, caught pneumonia , died four days later, aged 48.
In 1971 it was reported that more than 2000 of her artworks had been left abandoned to the elements and vermin in an open-sided hayshed.
Most were ruined . However, 30 of her paintings were discovered in the Monsalvat artists colony .Last month, one of her paintings ,Winter Sunset, which had once been owned by Rosalind Hollinrake, sold for $156,250.
A retrospective exhibition of her work went on display in 1999.The above associated book,76pp, one of 2000, signed by the author , priced at $200 , sold quickly.
