HAYNES, ISOBEL JESSIE (1871-1958)

"Chrysanthemums" (c.1930)
watercolour
32 x 28.5cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Berrima
 
Haynes is a forgotten, award-winning Australian Watercolourist. Born in Victoria, she was a late bloomer. She began painting at the age of 45, during the final years of World War I. In the 1920s, she traveled to Europe, spending 18 months painting in Britain, before exploring France & Italy. She was particularly taken by Florence & it's deep arts history, a topic that she would lecture about later in Australia at the United Arts Club (Adelaide Women's Club). Haynes was impressed by the subdued light of Europe as opposed to the harsh sunshine of Australia, something that inspired her moody watercolours. She was also known for her beautiful, delicate still life watercolours. This is a period when young, single female Australian artists took the same path, in search for new experiences & opportunity to work as artists, something not possible in Australia for women at the time. On her return to Adelaide in 1926, her European works were exhibited at the Society Of Artists Exhibition on North Terrace of the Art Gallery Of South Australia. In 1930, she exhibited a collection of watercolours in Tasmania. In 1933, on a three week sojourn to Melbourne, she was commissioned by the Royal Melbourne Golf Club to paint several views of the links & also completed several cityscapes in town. By the 1930 & 1940's Haynes was a prominent artist in Adelaide, & experienced further success, exhibiting alongside the likes of Hans Heysen, Ivor Helen, Horace Trenery, Louis McCubbin, Dorrit Black, Arthur Boyd & Nora Heysen at the Royal South Australian Society Of Arts. In 1936 she won a prize at the Society for "In The Austrian Tyrol". Her works are yet to be represented in any major National Collection.