TEAGUE, VIOLET (1872-1951)

“Portrait Of Lucy Rowe” (1908)
Oil on canvas
91 x 71cm
Details on verso
*gift from artist, thence by decent (Lucy Rowe)
*private collection, Melbourne
 
Teague was a pioneering, influential, award-winning Australian Female Portrait Painter, Illustrator & Modernist. Raised in Melbourne, she moved around Europe in her early years, studying in Brussels & London. She idolised the work of legendary American-Expat portrait painter, John Singer Sargent. In 1897 she joined the National Gallery Schools, Melbourne, studying with L. Bernard Hall, & joined the Charterisville group. She began exhibiting at the Paris Salons to great acclaim, focussing on Society portraits of Melbourne's upper bourgeoisie. In 1902 she was appointed to the council of the Victorian Artists Society, where she exhibited consistently. Her interest in Japanese woodblock printing saw the release of her pioneering collaborative piece, "Night Fall In The Ti-Tree" (1905) a classic Australian children's poetry book; the first illustrated artist publication in Australia. In 1915 her portrait of Mrs Otway Falkiner won a bronze medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, & 'Boy with a Palette'; submitted to the Old Salon, Paris won a silver medal in 1920; then it was hung at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Teague often introduced eighteenth-century mannerisms in her pictures; her portraits are among the best Australia has produced. Lucy Charlotte Rowe (1876-1967) was a pioneering Australian Opera Singer, & close associate of Dame Nellie Melba. She originally trained at the London Royal Academy Of Music from 1897, before returning to the Melbourne Conservatorium, under acclaimed Austrian Soprano, Elise Wiedermann. A mainstay of the Australian Opera Community, starring in numerous local productions, Rowe served as Honorary Secretary of the Melba Conservatorium Opera Society for many years. She also dedicated much of her time to charitable pursuits such as the Million Shilling Fund through the sale of her art collection in 1929. Rowe and Teague were regulars in Upper Class Melbourne circles, and were lifelong friends. They attended several gatherings together, & in support of each other.