Name Ethel Spowers | Role Artist | |
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Born June 11, 1890 (age 56) South Yarra, Melbourne Died 5 May 1947 (aged 56) Similar Cyril Power, Sybil Andrews, Claude Flight | ||
Ethel Louise Spowers (11 July 1890 – 5 May 1947) was an Australian artist associated with the Grosvenor School of Modern Art.
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Early life
Ethel Louise Spowers was born on 11 July 1890, in South Yarra, Melbourne, daughter of a New Zealand father and a London-born mother. Her father, William Spowers, owned a newspaper. Spowers trained as an artist in Melbourne, with some study in Paris as well (most notably with André Lhote).
Career
Spowers had her first solo exhibit in Melbourne at age 30, showing fairy-tale illustrations. In 1928–29, she studied linocut printmaking with Claude Flight at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London. She was one of several Australian women artists at the Grosvenor School, including Dorrit Black and Eveline Winifred Syme. Spowers mounted an exhibition of Australian linocuts in Melbourne in 1930. In 1932, she became a founder of the Contemporary Art Group, promoting modern art in Australia.
Spowers died on 5 May 1947, after a long illness from cancer, in Melbourne, age 56. She was buried at Fawkner Memorial Park.
Legacy
A children's book illustrated by Spowers, Cuthbert and the Dogs, was published the year after her death. The Art Gallery NSW holds several of her works, some from an early period of realistic illustrations, others showing the marked influence of her time at the Grosvenor School.
Spowers apparently destroyed some of her original works late in life; the surviving prints are especially valued by collectors in recent years. In 2011, Ethel Spowers' Wet Afternoon sold in New York City for £51,650, much higher than any of her previous works had brought at auction. The next year, Spowers' The Gust of Wind more than doubled that mark, selling for £114,050 in April 2012, a record price for any Grosvenor School print up to that date.