Captives in Eden

Picturesque Pursuits is a pioneering survey of a neglected area within Australian cultural history: the lives and works of colonial women artists. Caroline Jordan places her analysis of this subject within a broader social, political and historical frame. This approach allows her to reveal the multifaceted importance of an art tradition that was often interwoven with women’s daily domestic life. Evidently, colonial women’s art does not conform to traditional notions of a studio based ‘high art’, and its significance extends beyond the limited definitions of this category. As Jordan points out, most women artists produced works that were confined to the lower-value genres of miniatures, botanical studies, picturesque sketches and scrapbook collages. Their works were often small-scale mixed-media pieces of varying technical proficiency. The fact that the majority of colonial women’s art is found in libraries and archives rather than in the major galleries has further con- tributed to its virtual exclusion from the high-art canon.

A misunderstanding of the term ‘amateur tradition’ within a nineteenth-century context has also contributed to the neglect of colonial women’s art. Jordan points out that the division between amateur and professional artists was not clear-cut. Mary Allport’s botanical illustrations, for example, were highly skilled and not ‘amateurish’ in the modern sense of the word. However, she was supported by her family rather than from the sale of her work. Her art played a valuable role in strengthening social relations and fulfilling community obligations. In contrast, professional women artists were sometimes forced through financial necessity to carry out paid commissions and were considered to be of a lower social status than the amateur artist.