Jane Rebecca Price (18 February 1860 – 24 May 1948) was an Australian painter who was a foundation member of the

Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors The Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, established in Melbourne, Victoria in 1902, is the oldest surviving women's art group in Australia. History The Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (MSWPS) began in 1902 as a ...

. Two of her works have been acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria and two by the

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

. She was a close associate of members of the group of painters known as the

Heidelberg school The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. It has latterly been described as Australian impressionism. Melbourne art critic Sidney Dickinson coined the term in an 1891 review of works by Arthur Streeton and ...

Early life

Price was born in

Cheddar, Somerset Cheddar is a large village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of the English county of Somerset. It is situated on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills, north-west of Wells, south-east of Weston-super-Mare and south-west of Bristol ...

, England, on 18 February 1860."Jane Price", ''Design & Art Australia Online'', 2017, viewed 14 March 2020, daao.org.au/bio/jane-price. Her father, William Thomas Price, was a clergyman, her mother was Rebecca Jane Evans; she had five siblings.Hammond, V and Peers, J 1992, ''Completing the Picture: Women Artists and the Heidelberg Era'', Artmoves, Hawthorn East, Victoria, Australia, p.61. Price trained as an artist at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

(RCA) in London (then called the South Kensington Art School).MacKenzie, A 2000, “Jane Price Biography”, ''In the artist’s footsteps'', Medialaunch Pty Ltd, viewed 12 March 2020, Artistsfootsteps.com/html/Price_biography.htm.

Career

Jane Price Children playing in a landscape

At the age of 20, Price migrated from England to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, then moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

two years later. She returned to Sydney several times (1907–1910, 1925, 1935) but lived chiefly in Melbourne’s suburbs, spending her final 13 years in St. Kilda, at the house of her friend

Ina Gregory Georgina Alice Gregory (18 October 1874 – 5 June 1964) was an Australian artist. Gregory was born on 18 October 1874 in East Melbourne, Victoria, East Melbourne to Alice (née Topp) and John Burslem Gregory, barrister-at-law. She was the sec ...

, another artist who is associated with the Heidelberg school. Price continually painted throughout her life, but, needing an income and somewhere to live, also worked as a governess, which reduced her productivity as an artist. Her paintings were exhibited by the Victorian Artists Society between 1882 and 1906, and at other places in Melbourne. Price enjoyed life-long friendship with artists who were central to the circle that came to be known as the Heidelberg school. Amongst her closest associates were

Jane Sutherland Jane Sutherland (26 December 1853 – 25 July 1928) was an Australian landscape painter who was part of the pioneering plein-air movement in Australia, and a member of the Heidelberg School. Her advocacy to advance the professional standing of fe ...

Clara Southern Clara Southern (3 October 1860 – 15 December 1940) was an Australian artist associated with the Heidelberg School, also known as Australian Impressionism. She was active between the years 1883 and her death in 1940. Physically, Southern was t ...

Tom Roberts Thomas William Roberts (8 March 185614 September 1931) was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. After studying in Melbourne, he travelled to Europe i ...

and

Frederick McCubbin Frederick McCubbin (25 February 1855 – 20 December 1917) was an Australian artist, art teacher and prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, McCubb ...

. Hammond and Peers record that Price is mentioned in a letter written by McCubbin to Roberts noting that he was pleased to see that "Janey Price did very well" in an exhibition held at McCubbin's house in Shipley St, South Yarra, in 1906. A number of her paintings were sold at the exhibition, according to Hammond and Peers.

Death and legacy

Price died on 24 May 1948 at the age of 88, living in the house shared with her friend and fellow artist, Ina Gregory. Jane Price Crescent in the Canberra suburb of Conder is named in her honour. Since her death there have been several exhibitions that have included her work, for example: ::*1988 ''The Australian Impressionists: Their Origins and Influences'', Lauraine Diggins, North Caulfield ::*1992 ''Completing the Picture: Women Artists of the Heidelberg Era'', travelling exhibition curated by Artmoves ::*1993 ''A Century of Australian Women Artists 1840s -1940s'', Deutscher Galleries, Melbourne Her work is represented in The National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of South Australia: ::*''The Patch, Kallista'', 1941 (inscribed on the reverse of the painting: “view from Tom Robert’s Studio”). Online
The Patch, Kallista by JR Price
::*''Sydney Harbour by Night'', c. 1910. Online
Sydney Harbour by Night by JR Price
::* ''A little 'un'', early 1890s and ''Spring clouds'' c. 1905. Online at:
''A little 'un'' and ''Spring clouds''
Works in Private collections: ::''Heidelberg'', n.d., Online

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Jane 1860 births 1948 deaths 19th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Australian artists Alumni of the Royal College of Art Australian women painters English emigrants to colonial Australia Heidelberg School Artists from Somerset