FRANCART, YVONNE (1924-2007)

“Australian Wildflowers” (c.1945)
mixed media on paper
50 x 40cm
Signed lower centre
*exhibited at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
*private collection, Sydney
 
Francart is a forgotten Australian Modernist & Theatre Designer. ​​​A contemporary of Margaret Olley, Yvonne studied art at East Sydney Tech. The pair painted sets at Rosemarie Benjamin's children's theatre at Mosman, a company which folded when a polio epidemic discouraged public gatherings. Tall and slim, Yvonne was described by Cedric Flower as dazzling to look at. She was one of the foundation members of the influential Merioola School, or the "Sydney Charm School", featuring the likes of Olley, Drysdale, Dobell, Friend, Sainthill, Lymburner, Rickards and many others. Signing her works "Franc", she exhibited in March 1945 with the Education Department Gallery’s Under 30 show where her “Pawnshop” was reviewed as "grim and bleak". In 1945 her portrait was painted by Jocelyn Rickards and exhibited at Macquarie Galleries in June 1947. She was a prolific and leading set and costume designer for the Sydney Theatre throughout the 1940s-1970s, alongside the likes of Sainthill, Rickards, Rowell to name a few. She was also an accomplished illustrator, starting with Hilda Marston’s 1949 children’s book The Little Paper Man. In 1962 she designed playing cards with pictures of historic houses for the National Trust. In 1963 she had a solo exhibition of paintings at Macquarie Galleries with whom she exhibited again in 1965.