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Violet Teague
Violet Teague
	Self portrait (1899)
Born	21 February 1872; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died	30 September 1951 (aged 79); Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia
Education	National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne
Known for	Etching, lithography
Notable work	Night Fall in the Ti-Tree (1905); The Boy with the Palette (1911);
Awards	Bendigo Jubilee Exhibition gold medal, 1901

Violet Helen Evangeline Teague (21 February 1872 – 30 September 1951) was an Australian artist, noted for her painting, printmaking and her critical writings on art.

Early life and training

The only daughter of Melbourne homeopath James Teague and his wife Eliza Jane Miller, Teague was born on 21 February 1872 in Melbourne. Her mother died while she was an infant, and she was raised by her father and his second wife, Sybella, along with Sybella's two children.^[1] Teague was taught by a governess at home, and her education included French and the classics.^[2] She completed college at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne.^[3]

Violet traveled to Europe to study painting, from 1893-96 with French artist Ernest Blanc-Garin in his Brussels studio then 1896-97 at Hubert von Herkomer's school, Bushey, Hertfordshire.^[4] Returning to Melbourne she enrolled at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School 1897-1900, while also studying with E. Phillips Fox and Tudor St George Tucker at their Melbourne School of Art which ran 1893-99, and which taught in the manner of French Impressionist schools which the two teachers attended, and with more liberal methods than the academy-style instruction of the National Gallery of Victoria art schools. A summer school was offered at Charterisville that Fox and Tucker had established in the old mansion above the Yarra River in East Ivanhoe, the lease of which they had taken over from Walter Withers in 1893. It was Australia's first recognised summer school of art. The women, including Ina Gregory, Mary Meyer, Bertha Merfield, Henrietta Irving, Ursula Foster and Helen Peters were accommodated in rooms of the stone house and a chaperon and housekeeper looked after them and Violet may have been their tutor.^[5]

Teague travelled with her family in Europe as a young woman. She toured widely, and visited galleries in Germany, France, Belgium the Netherlands and England. In 1901, she recalled visiting Spanish galleries during her childhood, and commented "never shall I forget the Velazquez, with their beautiful horses and exquisite colouring, or the lovely Raphaels".^[6]

Career

Teague exhibited regularly at the Paris Salons, and her portrait of a Colonel Rede in 1897 at the Société des Artistes Français brought her accolades.^[7]^[8]

In 1902 she was appointed to the council of the Victorian Artists Society which published her poem 'A Cloud Fantasy' in its journal.^[3]

She was "the first Australian to demonstrate a sustained interest in, and an understanding of Japanese woodblock printmaking".^[9] Printing from woodblock had a long history in Japan. She collaborated in woodcuts with her friend Geraldine Rede, publishing Night Fall in the Ti-Tree together from her Collins Street studio in 1905.^[10] The 32-page Haiku-style text tells the story of the simple life of bushland rabbits with 16 coloured woodblock illustrations.^[10] This collaborative little book is the first example of coloured woodblock printing in Australia, and also the first Australian artists' book.^[10]

Her painting Boy with a Palette won a silver prize from the Old Salon, Paris when exhibited in 1920, and was later hung at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.^{[citation needed]}

Following the 1920 Paris Salon, Australian artist Rupert Bunny wrote to Teague, and observed that The Boy with the Pallette was one of the best works in that year's exhibition at the Old Salon.^[11]^[12]

One of the most unusual aspects of Teague's oeuvre, one that lacks almost any precedents in Australian art, was the creation of altar paintings and banners for Protestant churches. The first was a 1910 commission (now in the Hamilton art gallery)^[13] for a church in Wannon, Victoria, where her brother worshipped. The frame for the work was designed by her friend, artist Jessie Traill.^[8] In 1921, Teague exhibited an altar piece (now at St. Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne)^[13] for a new church at Kinglake, Victoria, built as a memorial to soldiers who died in World War I. Inscriptions to accompany the picture were again prepared by Traill, and placed on the base of the work. The painting was Teague's most prominent work at a solo exhibition held at the Melbourne Athenaeum in 1921.^[7]

In 1933 Teague, her sister Una and their friend Jessie Traill, travelled across the outback by car to visit the Hermannsburg Mission. Teague befriended famed Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira, who named one of his children after her^[10] and accompanied the group on their painting excursions. The Mission had recently suffered a drought resulting in the deaths of a third of the Aboriginal population.^[10] In Melbourne the sisters organised and exhibition to raise more than £2,000 towards a pipeline to help transport water to the Mission.^[10] Works in the exhibition were donated by Traill, Frederick McCubbin, E. Phillips Fox and Hans Heysen.^[14] The pipeline was laid in 1935 from Kaporilja Springs to the Mission.^[14]

Writing

Peers, in a number of her papers, identifies Teague's writing as an overlooked aspect of the artist's career. Teague provided commentary on Australian art in letters and essays, including a panegyric on E. Phillips Fox at his passing,^[15] on the 'Latest Felton Bequest Purchases' in The quarterly journal: members newsletter of the Victorian Artists Society of 1 July 1911, and 'Some Thoughts on Art' in The Advance Australia.^[8]

She was an outlier, in letters to The Argus, The Age, and The Herald, announcing Hermannsburg group exhibition, in taking a position that Aboriginal people had survived '100 years of our occupation,' cheated of their inheritance^[16]^[17]^[18] by colonialism, thus defying the eugenicist justification that they were an innately inferior 'dying race'.^[8]

Exhibitions

Exhibitions include:^[19]

14 July 1905 – 19 August 1905, Winter Exhibition, Victorian Artists' Society Galleries
10 November 1905 – 2 December 1905, Eight Federal Art Exhibition, Society of Artists' Royal South Australian Society of Arts Gallery
1906, Annual Exhibition, Victorian Artists' Society Galleries
23 October 1907 – 30 November 1907, First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work, Multiple venues
1908, Exhibition, Bradley's Rooms
2 December 1908 – 12 December 1908, The Arts and Crafts Society of Victoria, Guild Hall
1909, Winter Exhibition, Victorian Artists' Society Galleries
1911, Annual Exhibition, Victorian Artists' Society Galleries
1911, The Boy with the palette, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
12 July 1912 – 10 August 1912, Annual Exhibition, Victorian Artists' Society Galleries
29 April 1914 – 23 May 1914, Annual Exhibition, Victorian Artists' Society Galleries
1915, Australian Artists' War Fund exhibition, Vickery's Chambers. Foreword by Ethel Phillips Fox mentions that Sydney artists contributed works of art valued £1500 to £2000, which was distributed as prizes to subscribers.
6 July - 20 July 1918, Salon des Poilus, Exhibition of Pictures for Sale, Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne
12 – 26 November 1919, Arts and Crafts Society Exhibition, Federal Court House
1925, Loan Exhibition of Australian Paintings, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
16-26 November 1934, Heidelberg Art Exhibition, Catalogue of the Heidelberg and District Art Exhibition, Ivanhoe Hall, Heidelberg, Germany
1 November 1940 – 1 December 1940, Representative collection of Australian art, Margaret Maclean's Gallery
18 August - 3 September 1978, A Selection of Woodcuts and Linocuts by Napier Waller and other Melbourne Artists
4 March - 3 April 1980, Melbourne/Monash Exchange Exhibition, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne
19 September - 8 October 1986, Australian Women Artists, Paintings, Watercolours & Prints, Bridget McDonnell Gallery, Melbourne
17 - 24 September 1989, Spring exhibition, Jim Alexander Gallery, Melbourne
11 - 23 July 1995, Violet Teague Portrait Prize, The Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors and the Victorian Artists Society, Melbourne
17 July - 29 August 1999, The art of Violet Teague, touring exhibition by The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Geelong Art Gallery, Geelong, Victoria
10 September - 31 October 1999, The art of Violet Teague, touring exhibition by The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
9 November - 12 December 1999, The art of Violet Teague, touring exhibition by The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Hamilton Art Gallery, Hamilton
18 Mart - 23 April 2000, The art of Violet Teague, touring exhibition by The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo
13 May - 11 June 2000, The art of Violet Teague, touring exhibition by The Ian Potter Museum of Art, National Trust Centre, Sydney
17 December - 12 March 2000, The art of Violet Teague, touring exhibition by The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne
28 November - 31 December 2015, PROGRESSION Women in Australian Art, Day Fine Art

Published works

Birds of the sunny south, with Australian flowers / produced entirely by Australians (V. Teague, G. Rede, I. Gregory, A. Ashley) [Melbourne] 1915(?) : Pater's Printery

Night fall in the ti-tree / woodcuts by Geraldine Rede and Violet Teague, [Melbourne] 1905 : Sign of the Rabbit

Legacy

Teague has been reckoned among the best portraitists Australia has produced.^[3] Teague has also been identified as one of Australia's first female art critics.^[20]

Teague Street in the Canberra suburb of Cook is named in her honour.^[21]

References

Notes

^ Peers 1995, p. 461.
^ Clark 1999, p. 10.
^ ^a ^b ^c Lee, Mary Alice (1990). "Teague, Violet Helen (1872–1951)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 12 (MUP). National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
^ Lee, Mary Alice, "Teague, Violet Helen (1872–1951)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 3 July 2020
^ Topliss, Helen; Monash University. Department of Visual Arts. Exhibition Gallery (1984), The artists' camps : plein air painting in Melbourne 1885–1898, Monash University Gallery, p. 108, ISBN 978-0-86746-326-2
^ "Miss Violet Teague "at home"". Table Talk. Melbourne. 25 July 1901. pp. 18–19. Retrieved 23 June 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
^ ^a ^b "Art exhibitions". The Argus. Melbourne. 29 November 1921. p. 4. Retrieved 23 June 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Peers, Juliet (2000). "Violet Teague: The (Woman) Artist as Critic". Australasian Victorian Studies Journal. 6 (1): 84–101 – via Sydney Open Journals.
^ Butler 2007, p. 123.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Lee. "Night Fall in the Ti-Tree. Woodcuts by Geraldine Rede and Violet Teague. Verses by Violet Teague (1905)". Rare Books & Manuscripts Blog. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
^ "Items of interest". The Argus. Melbourne. 30 June 1920. p. 10. Retrieved 23 June 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
^ Clark 1999, p. 9.
^ ^a ^b "Anglican Parish of the Otways". Retrieved 7 August 2016.
^ ^a ^b National Gallery of Victoria, label, "Central Australian sunset", NGV, Melbourne, viewed 12 March 2024
^ "E. P. FOX AND HIS WORK". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 21, 711. Victoria, Australia. 26 February 1916. p. 7. Retrieved 11 November 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^ "TO THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 27, 284. Victoria, Australia. 27 January 1934. p. 20. Retrieved 11 November 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^ "WATER FOR HERMANNSBURG Artists Help Mission". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 27, 284. Victoria, Australia. 27 January 1934. p. 20. Retrieved 11 November 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^ Teague, Violet (29 January 1934). "HERMANNSBURG'S NEEDS : VICTORIAN ARTISTS HELP : Exhibition to Open To-day". The Argus. p. 6. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
^ "Teague, Violet. (1872–1951) · Related exhibitions · Australian Prints + Printmaking". www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au. Archived from the original on 14 March 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
^ Peers, Juliet (8 March 2018). "Violet Teague: the (woman) artist as critic". Australasian Victorian Studies Journal. 6: 84–101.
^ "Australian Capital Territory National Memorials Ordinance 1928–1972". Australian Government Gazette. Periodic (National: 1974–1977). 13 April 1976. p. 1. Retrieved 9 February 2020.

Bibliography

Butler, Roger (2007). Printed. Images by Australian Artists 1885–1955. Canberra, ACT: National Gallery of Australia. ISBN 978-0-642-54204-5.
Clark, Jane (1999). "Introduction". In Jane Clark and Felicity Druce (ed.). Violet Teague. Roseville, NSW: The Beagle Press. pp. 9–19. ISBN 0-947349-29-4.
Peers, Juliet (1995). "Teague, Violet Helen Evangeline". In Joan Kerr and Anita Callaway (ed.). Heritage: The National Women's Art Book. Roseville East, NSW: G + B Arts International / Craftsman House. pp. 461–462. ISBN 976-6410 45-3.
Vernon, Kay (1999). "A Markedly Cultured Mind and a Devotional Spirit: Violet Teague's Altar Paintings". In Jane Clark and Felicity Druce (ed.). Violet Teague. Roseville, NSW: The Beagle Press. pp. 9–19. ISBN 0-947349-29-4.