Isabel McWhannell | Romance | SOLD

Romance c 1910

Watercolour on board
43 x 22.5 cm

Provenance:
Family of McWhannell
Christopher Day Gallery
Private collection Sydney

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Isabel McWhannell (1883-1919)
BIO

Born at ‘Rodney Downs’ Aramac, Queensland. Her father was a Western Queensland pioneer who arrived from Scotland in in 1863. Within 10 years he was operating 4 large scale cattle and sheep properties in the Aramac/Longreach district. Following his death in 1888 the family moved to Sydney where Isabel completed her schooling.

As a teenager Isabel took a keen interest in drawing and painting. She was sent to the Sydney Art School where under the eye of Julian Ashton and Sydney Long she proved to be a student of great promise. In particular she had a very close relationship with Sid Long for many years. She began to exhibit works in 1902. Her work carries a clear influence of Sid Long’s decorative romanticism, but is only an influence, not a domination, for there constantly appears a variation towards a more personal vision.

She is perhaps less widely known because her paintings were comparatively few- not more than a dozen (1902-1914). She was part of the foundation group of women artists which the first decade of the 20th century produced. They included, Ethel Stephens, Maud Russell, Amy Vale, Florence Rodway, Gladys Owen and Thea Proctor. Among her fellow artists she was popular as much for her loveable character as for her devotion to painting.

Isobel’s health declined sharply from 1914 and she spent her final years at the Pines Private Hospital Randwick where she died on the 27th of June 1919 aged 36 years.

It is estimated that only a few dozen of her paintings were ever sold. the balance of her works which number 70-80 were in the possession of her brothers family home in Rose Bay, Sydney. They were discovered in 2006 when the last of the family left the home.

Isobel’s works are represented in the Australian National Gallery, Geelong Art Gallery, Cruther’s Collection, University of Western Australia and Howard Hinton Art Collection, Armidale.