Alice Chapman

Alice Chapman (1860 –1929) was an Australian artist known for her portraits and genre paintings (scenes depicting ordinary people in everyday situations). Her oeuvre also included, amongst other subjects, still life paintings.

Alice Chapman
Born1860
Inglewood, Victoria, Australia
Died1929
St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia
EducationNational Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne
Known forPainter, Portraitist
Awards2 Jury awards, Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition, 1888 Gold medal for figure painting, Bendigo Exhibition, Bendigo Art Gallery, 1894

Early life

The Chapman family was living in Inglewood, Victoria when Alice was born in 1860. The site was a significant gold field until the end of the century. Her father Joel Chapman was a quartz miner. Her mother was Anne Robertson; who married Joel Chapman in 1858. Alice was the first born child and she had three younger sisters. Her family left the gold fields and moved to the suburb of Armadale in Melbourne during her childhood.[1] Joel Chapman died in Armadale in 1908, aged 81; his wife Anne died in St Kilda 1912, aged 72.

After her schooling Chapman embarked upon her formal training as an artist, attending the National Gallery of Victoria Art School 1876-1886.[1] She was amongst the women students at the school who rebelled against the unequal treatment of male and female students. For this assertiveness Chapman was punished by dismissal (although she was re-instated by the trustees after an outcry in the press and the art community).[2]

During her years of training, her fellow students included some of the artists who were central to the future development of Australian impressionism, known as the Heidelberg school. Tom Roberts was one such who, in 1887, painted her younger sister, Ethel Chapman, (aged 12), Blue eyes and Brown

Career

On completion of her training, Chapman chose No. 8, Planet Chambers, Collins Street, Melbourne for her professional studio. She chiefly specialised in portraiture and genre painting, and regularly showed her work in public exhibitions, with success.[1]

Exhibitions in which she participated included:

One of her putative paintings, Wharves near Spencer Street, 1910, can be seen online in the collection of the State Library of Victoria, which states that although the painting was owned by Chapman, it is now thought possibly to be by another painter.

Chapman was honoured in 1894, by being appointed an Honorary Life Governor of the Bendigo Art Gallery,[4] in the same year that she won the gallery’s Gold Medal for figure painting.[1]

She was a member of the Victorian Artists’ Society until 1908, and had exhibited there on a regular basis until 1892.[1]

In 1911 Chapman’s sister, Ethel Margaret (b. 1875) died. Ethel had married Ewart Paul in 1904. The two young Paul children, Violet Evelyn (b. 1907) and Charles William (b. 1910), became the responsibility of Chapman and her two unmarried sisters. Thus for the next 14 years there was less time for Chapman to devote to her art, and she accepted no more commissions for portraits.[1]

Death and Legacy

In 1929 Chapman died, at the age of 65. She was living in St. Kilda with her sisters, Elinor (b. 1870) and Jessie (1868-1956) who had helped her to raise her niece and nephew.

See also

Note: At the time of writing (March 2020) research libraries are closed to the public, as one measure against the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
Therefore the papers of Alice Chapman that are held by the following libraries cannot be accessed.
This article will be updated when the information becomes available.

  • National Gallery of Victoria Shaw Research Library, file:[5]
  • National Library of Australia, file:[6]
  • State Library of Victoria, papers,[7]

References
  1. Hammond, V and Peers, J 1992, Completing the picture: women artists and the Heidelberg era, Artmoves, Hawthorn East, Victoria, p. 42-43.
  2. Gaze, D [ed] 1997, Dictionary of Women Artists, Volume 1 Introductory surveys artists A-I, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London, p.126.
  3. "Miss Alice Chapman", Design Australia Online, viewed 20 March 2020, http://daao.org.au/bio/miss-alice-chapman/.
  4. Tout-Smith, D 2007, “Alice Chapman, Artist (1860-1929)”, Museums Victoria collections, last viewed 20 March 2020, http://collections.musuemvictoria.com.au/articles/1823.
  5. Chapman, A n.d., Artist’s file, National Gallery of Victoria Library, http://ngvlibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/936093971.
  6. Chapman, A n.d., Alice Chapman: Australian and New Zealand Art files, http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/36934518.
  7. Mitchell, A 1929, Alice Chapman: the artist, album of personal papers of the artist, in collection of the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.
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