ARTIST: Esther Paterson

MEDIUM: Oil on canvas

TITLE: Still Life

FRAMED: Ornate gold and silver frame

FRAME SIZE: 37cm x 31cm

IMAGE SIZE: 24cm x 19cm

CONDITION: Very good

MARKINGS:  Signed lower left

BIOGRAPHY

Esther Paterson was born on 5 February 1892 at Carlton, Melbourne, second child of Scottish-born parents Hugh Paterson, artist, and his wife Elizabeth. She was educated at Oberwyl school, St Kilda, and studied painting at the National Gallery of Victoria school in 1907-12. Best known for her street-scenes, still life and landscapes, she found further avenues for her talents in commercial art, book-illustrating and cartooning. Her portraits of uniformed and civilian officers, including Rear Admiral (Sir) Victor Crutchley and Commodore (Sir) John Collins, were reproduced in the H.M.A.S. series and in magazines, and have been shown at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. The National Gallery of Victoria and the Geelong Art Gallery hold some of her work.

Paterson was a council-member (1954-68) of the Victorian Artists Society, a fellow (1949) of the Royal Society of Arts, London, and president (1966) of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. She died on 8 August 1971.