Norah Simpson (5 July 1895 – 19 February 1974) was an Australian modernist painter. She grew up in Sydney and is described as "giving impetus to modernism" in Australia: when returning from France in 1913, she brought back a series of reproductions of then-current works which were influential to her fellow art students. Sydney-based modernists inspired by those works and Simpson's descriptions of techniques include Grace Cossington Smith, Roy de Maistre and Roland Wakelin.

Biography

Norah Simpson was born on 5 July 1895 and grew up in Sydney.[1][2] In 1911 Simpson was a student of Antonio Dattilo Rubbo,[1] an Italian-born artist who taught in Australia from 1897,[3] fellow students were Tempe Manning and Grace Cossington Smith.[4] Late in 1911 Simpson travelled to London, and lived in Chelsea.[1] Next year she enrolled in the Westminster School of Art and was taught by Walter Sickert,[1] then she travelled to France to see the work of Cézanne, van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso. In 1913 she brought back to Australia a suitcase-ful of art books and reproductions of their works, thereby "giving impetus to modernism" in Australia.[5][6] The works contributed to "the debate and practice of new techniques and new subjects" by Simpson, Smith and Manning.[4] Other Sydney artists influenced by Simpson include Roy de Maistre and Roland Wakelin.[1] By 1915 Simpson had returned to London, then moved to Glasgow in 1919 and on to France in 1920.[1] In 1920 she married Edward Richardson Brown and they had a son, Donald, and by 1921 Simpson was no longer painting.[1][2] In 1950 she married William Henry Cockren, and she died in 1974 at Crossways, Instow, North Devon.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Gray, Anne (7 May 2012). "Norah Simpson: Biography". Design and Art Australia Online. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Studio Portrait, Chelsea (1915) by Norah Simpson". Art Gallery NSW. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
  3. ↑ Oakley, Carmel (1988). "Rubbo, Antonio Salvatore Dattilo (1870–1955)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
  4. 1 2 Harding, Lesley (1997). The first Australian modernists : Tempe Manning, Norah Simpson and Grace Cossington Smith : gender, myth and art criticism during the First World War (M. A. thesis). University of Melbourne, Department of Fine Arts.
  5. ↑ "Australian Painters". Australia's Culture Portal. Government of Australia. Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
  6. ↑ Butler, Rex; Donaldson, A. D. S. (2010). "French, Floral and Female: A History of UnAustralian Art 1900–1930 (Part 1)" (PDF). Emaj (Melbourne Art Journal) (5). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
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