SULLIVAN, GRACE (1883-1975)

"Sleeping Cat" (c.1930)
oil on board
30.5 x 45.5cm
signed lower left
*private collection, Sydney
 
Grace Sullivan (nee Burns) is a lost & forgotten Australian Illustrator and Cartoonist. She was another gifted woman who produced black-and-white work for Sydney magazines in the 1910s and early 1920s, including Lone Hand and the Bulletin. She appears to have worked solely as an illustrator and received no known publicity; nothing is known about her life. A regular contributor of stylish cartoons to the pre-war Bulletin, continued to have her work accepted throughout the war years, some were peculiarly bloodthirsty. Her pre-war illustrations and cartoons are more stylish and amusing. Civilian life was Sullivan's speciality. She was a talented illustrator, able to work in a variety of styles and capable of making a lasting impact with her drawings. Nothing further has been discovered about her career. Did she go voluntarily or was she pushed? She may be connected with the Australian black-and-white artist Edward Burns, mentioned by William Moore in The Story of Australian Art (Sydney 1934) as having emigrated to the United States in about 1930, where he contributed to Scribner's Magazine. Her work is so RARE there has been no recorded examples available on the secondary market!! Yet she was important enough in her era in the early 20th century to be included in Joan Kerr's seminal Women's Art publication, "Heritage".