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Environment and Heritage

Grace Cossington Smith

Australian artist (1892–1984)

Grace painting in the garden at Cossington, 1958
Image Credit: James Hopwood/Fairfax Images
 

Location

43 Ku-ring-gai Avenue, Turramurra, Sydney NSW 2074

Turramurra is on the land of the Darramuragal and Darug people.

Accessibility

Wheelchair accessible

About Grace Cossington Smith

Grace Cossington Smith OBE, AO is one of Australia’s most celebrated modernist painters, renowned for her iconic Sydney cityscapes and luminous interiors.

One of the first artists in the country to be influenced by the European post-Impressionist movement, her aim, she said, was 'to express form in colour – colour within colour, vibrant with light'.

She is best known for her modernist depiction Sydney city life – in particular, the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the domestic interiors of 'Cossington', her beloved Turramurra home, which are filled with memories, affection and her astonishing powers as a colourist.

Self-portrait oil painting of Grace Cossington Smith.
Grace Cossington Smith, ‘Study of a head: self-portrait’ 1916, oil on canvas on board.
Image Credit: National Gallery of Australia, purchased with funds from the Marie and Vida Breckenridge bequest 2010.

Grace Cossington Smith, ‘Study of a head: self-portrait’, 1916

Starting out

Grace Cossington Smith was born in Sydney in 1892 to an affluent English migrant family. The second of 5 children, she grew up in Neutral Bay on Sydney’s north shore.

Grace studied drawing at school before enrolling in classes with the artist Antonio Dattilo Rubbo in 1910, and in 1912 she travelled abroad for further study. In England, Grace encountered works by British modernists for the first time.

Home in Turramurra

Grace came back to Sydney and her family’s house at Turramurra in 1914. Renamed 'Cossington' in 1920, it remained Grace's home for the rest of her working life and became the subject of many of her later paintings.

Returning to Dattilo Rubbo's classes, joining contemporaries Roland Wakelin and Roy de Maistre, she studied European modern art and began to paint for the first time. Her parents 'were keen about' her painting and her father built her a small studio in the garden.

  • A photo of a blue plaque on the front fence of a house called 'Cossington'
    Grace Cossington Smith’s Blue Plaque at Turramurra
    Grace Cossington Smith's Blue Plaque
    Image Credit: Matthew Dunbar
  • A photo of a blue plaque for Grace Cossington Smith
    Grace Cossington Smith’s Blue Plaque
    Grace Cossington Smith's Blue Plaque
    Image Credit: Matthew Dunbar

Modernist pioneer

In October 1915, Grace exhibited her first painting, her student work The sock knitter, depicting her sister, Margaret, knitting socks for soldiers serving in the First World War. It was 'perhaps the first fully Post-Impressionist work painted in Australia', revealing the influence of post-impressionist European painters.

In the 1920s, Grace produced a series of paintings of the Sydney Harbour Bridge under construction. These captured the excitement and energy of city life and include the masterpiece The curve of the bridge (1928–29).

In 1926, Cossington Smith joined Thea Proctor, Ralph Balson, Grace Crowley, Roland Wakelin and other modernist artists in the 'Contemporary' and she exhibited with them for many years. Her first solo exhibition was held at Grosvenor Galleries in Sydney in 1928 and she continued to exhibit at the Macquarie Galleries from 1932 until 1971.

Grace celebrated modern Sydney of the inter-war years with paintings including The lacquer room (1936). In the 1940s, she was working increasingly in landscape. By the mid-1950s, however, she had turned her artistic focus to interiors when caring for her sister and largely restricted to 'Cossington'. She produced 2 significant paintings, Interior with wardrobe mirror (1955) and The window (1956), in this time.

Painting of the interior of one of Grace Cossington Smith’s rooms. The painting contains a white door, a bookshelf to the right and a large brown piece of furniture to the left.
Grace Cossington Smith, 'Interior in yellow' 1962-64, oil on compostion board
Image Credit: National Gallery of Australia, purchased 1965.

Grace Cossington Smith, ‘Interior in yellow’, 1962–64

National acclaim

Although Grace's works were collected by Australian galleries in the 1940s, national acclaim came late. With Bernard Smith's 1962 publication Australian painting, her work became more widely known and recognised. She was 'rediscovered' with a major retrospective of her work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1973. The curator of this exhibition, Daniel Thomas, reported that Grace 'let slip that wide recognition at 81 was rather late, and that her open-hearted offerings of delight in what she saw around her could have been welcomed earlier'.

More retrospectives, such as the 2005 exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia, have followed. In 1973, she was awarded an OBE and, in 1983, shortly before her death, she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for her services to art.

Today, she is celebrated as an important early exponent of the modernist style in Australia.

  • Black and white image of Grace Cossington Smith walking down the street with other people walking in the background. She is holding a small purse while wearing shoes, stockings, a skirt, a plaid blazer, gloves and a hat.
    Grace in Sydney in the 1930s
    Grace in Sydney c. 1930s
    Image Credit: Australian War Memorial C1083116
  • Black and white portrait of a woman standing outside wearing a shirt and a long skirt.
    Grace in her garden at 'Cossington', 1915
    Grace in her garden at Cossington 1915
    Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

References