MESTON, EMILY (1866-1914) Attrib.

"Grapes" (c.1900)
oil on canvas
75 x 30.5cm
unsigned
*private collection, Melbourne
 
Meston was an important, forgotten Australian painter. She received most of her artistic training at Melbourne’s National Gallery School in 1882 and 1885-88, moving to Sydney in the early 1890s, where she exhibited with the Art Society of NSW. In 1897-98 she held art classes in her studio in Vickery’s Chambers, where in 1897 she had a portrait on view by Tom Roberts , apparently a good friend. She became well known in Sydney for her own oil portraits, her subjects including Colonel Goodlet, Rev. G. McInnes, Mr and Mrs A.B. Piddington, Sir George Reid (exhibited 1896), James Ashton MLC, Signor Hazon and Professor Sir Thomas Anderson Stuart (painted for Sydney University, where it remains). All her known surviving work is in oils. She is represented in selected National collections, including the Art Gallery of NSW.