JANET CUMBRAE-STEWART

The pastels of Janet Cumbrae-Stewart hold a special place in Australian art, Nude with Shawl being a particularly attractive example. Although it was her favoured medium, and she is best known for her captivating studies of the female nude, her oeuvre included landscapes, portraits and flower studies. The figure is always the focus in these portraits of femininity, distracting touches or narrative cast aside. The shawl, for example, which hangs down loosely, is introduced to provide a contrast of texture and colour against the subtle softness of the skin. Again, to the left, the darkness of the model's braided hair brings out the luminosity of flesh tones to perfection. The pose of the figure viewed from the back, often with slightly bowed head, is a feature of many of Cumbrae-Stewart's best nude studies. Significant examples are The Model Disrobing, 1917 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) and the stately Retiring 1919 (private collection).¹ The latter pastel, like many others, shows the artist's particular interest in the form and fold of the figure's shoulders, covered and revealed.

Regarded as one of Melbourne's most significant artists, Cumbrae- Stewart belonged to a remarkable generation of women who studied at the National Gallery School in Melbourne during the early twentieth century. Her contemporaries included Dora Wilson, Jessie Traill, Hilda Rix Nicholas and Vida Lahey. In 1922 Cumbrae-Stewart went to Europe, where she exhibited at London's Royal Academy and the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français in Paris, receiving an honourable mention from the Old Salon of 1923. She remained in Europe for the next seventeen years, traveled throughout the continent and on to Canada, before returning to Australia in 1939. Nude with Shawl dates from her time in Europe, most probably when she was in Paris.