Evelyn Chapman

Evelyn Chapman
Chapman in 1915
Born
Grace Evelyn Chapman

(1888-10-25)25 October 1888
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died18 July 1961(1961-07-18) (aged 72)
England
EducationRoyal Art Society School, Académie Julian, Bushey School of Art
OccupationVisual artist
Known forPortrait paintings
SpouseGeorge Thalben-Ball

Grace Evelyn Chapman (1888 – 1961), known as Evelyn Chapman, was an Australian artist, known for her depictions of the battlefields of France. She was the first Australian woman artist to visit and paint those WWI scenes. She was also a portraitist.

Life and work

Chapman was born in Sydney, Australia on 25 October 1888, daughter of Grace Egerton (née Cornish) and Thomas John Francis Chapman, a merchant known as Frank.[1] She was educated at Miss Hooper's Cambridge School in Hunters Hill.[2]

In 1906 she began studying at the Royal Art Society School with Antonio Dattilo Rubbo. Her portrait of him, painted in 1911, was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1919.[3] At the 1909 exhibition of students' work, Chapman won several prizes.[4] The following two years her work was hung at the Royal Art Society's annual exhibition,[5] including "Une Jeune Fille" in 1911 which was described as "a charming portrait...attractive, sympathetic, and arresting; the colour scheme is admirable, and the painting of the silk garment flung over the subject's shoulder is particularly good", Chapman said to be "a promising student...shortly, we understand, to study in Paris".[6]

In France, she continued her art studies at the Académie Julian in Paris, under painter Lucien Simon from 1911 to 1913.[1][7] She returned to Sydney in 1913 and exhibited paintings at the Royal Art Society annual exhibition the following year.[8] Her work was said to be "much advanced by her studies in Paris"[9] and "Blue and Gold" was purchased by the National Art Gallery.[10]

Chapman, 1919, near a Villers-Bretonneux church

During the war years, she lived in England where she studied with Lucy Kemp-Welch at the Bushey School of Art.[1]

Chapman visited Villers-Bretonnneux in 1919 with her father, who was working with the New Zealand War Graves Commission.[11] According to the Australian War Memorial she was "the only known Australian woman artist to have gained access to the Western Front in the immediate aftermath of the war".[12] While there she painted a number of works, including seven which were acquired by the Australian War Memorial in 1977–78[13] and others held in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[14]

In 1920–1923, she had pictures accepted for exhibition at the Paris Salon.[15][16][17][18] Her work was hung at the 1922 Exhibition of Women's Work at Olympia in London.[19] Despite this recognition, she was not accepted for the Royal Academy in 1921 and chose not to submit further paintings.[20]

Four of her paintings were included in an exhibition of works by Rupert Richardson and her daughter, Pamela Thalben-Ball, held in Canberra in 1979.[21]

Legacy

Grave of Evelyn and Sir George Thalben-Ball

Her daughter, Pamela Thalben-Ball, bequeathed funds for the Evelyn Chapman Art Award. The scholarship, administered by the S. H. Ervin Gallery, was first awarded in 2018. Recipients have been:[22]

  • 2018 – Kate Stevens
  • 2020 – Caroline Zilinsky
  • 2022 – Rachel Milne
  • 2024 – Nicole Kelly

Personal life and death

Chapman married the organist George Thalben-Ball in London in 1926 and gave up painting.[1][23]

She lived in England for the rest of her life where she died on 18 July 1961[24] and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Grace Evelyn Chapman". Design and Art Australia Online. Archived from the original on 25 October 2024. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  2. ^ "Social and Personal Snap Shots". The Commonwealth Home. 35 (971): 19. 1 June 1928. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via Trove.
  3. ^ "A Dattilo-Rubbo, 1911 by Evelyn Chapman". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  4. ^ "Royal Art Society". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 22, 442. New South Wales, Australia. 18 December 1909. p. 17. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Royal Art Society". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 22, 658. New South Wales, Australia. 27 August 1910. p. 6. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "Royal Art Society". The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser. Vol. XCII, no. 2599. New South Wales, Australia. 30 August 1911. p. 9. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "Puck's Girdle". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 23, 309. New South Wales, Australia. 25 September 1912. p. 5. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "Men and Women". The Sun. No. 1032. New South Wales, Australia. 16 October 1913. p. 9 (Final Extra). Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "Royal Art Society". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 23, 978. New South Wales, Australia. 14 November 1914. p. 10. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "For the Art Gallery". The Daily Telegraph. No. 11082. New South Wales, Australia. 28 November 1914. p. 11. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ Watters, Jane (2018). "Artistic Spirit". Trust: The National Trust of Australia magazine (6): 10–13.
  12. ^ "Edmund Cornish". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  13. ^ Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Australian War Memorial (Report). 1978. p. 16. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via Trove.
  14. ^ "Works by Evelyn Chapman". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  15. ^ "Near and Far". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 25, 706. New South Wales, Australia. 26 May 1920. p. 8. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "Woman's World". The Daily Telegraph. No. 13, 107. New South Wales, Australia. 14 May 1921. p. 7. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ "Gallery and Studio". The Daily Telegraph. No. 13, 460. New South Wales, Australia. 1 July 1922. p. 11. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "Australian Artists". Sunday Times. No. 1953. New South Wales, Australia. 8 July 1923. p. 15. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ "Exhibition of Women's Work". The Brisbane Courier. No. 20, 159. Queensland, Australia. 31 August 1922. p. 15. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ^ "Miss Evelyn Chapman". The Sun. No. 4012. New South Wales, Australia. 11 September 1923. p. 14 (FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. ^ "Notes and Quotes". The Canberra Times. Vol. 53, no. 15, 949. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 24 May 1979. p. 15. Retrieved 18 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ^ "Evelyn Chapman Art Award". S.H. Ervin Gallery. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  23. ^ "Evelyn Chapman, 1888–1961". National Portrait Gallery. Archived from [bhttps://www.portrait.gov.au/people/evelyn-chapman-1888 the original] on 10 June 2024. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  24. ^ "(Stone houses, St. Ives, Cornwall), circa 1918 by Evelyn Chapman". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 18 January 2025.