Frances Duffy (1927–1996)

Flowers in Glass Jug

Oil on canvas

47.5 x 37.5 cm (frame 66 x 56 cm)

Signed lower left.

Exhibited in Duffy's retrospective exhibition held at the Eltham Wiregrass Gallery in February 1997.

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THE GEN

THE GIRL WHO FOUND A BRILLIANT SENSE OF COLOUR

Frances Patricia Duffy was born in Prahran on 7 January 1927. Her parents, Francis Patrick and Ada, had married in 1922 and lived in Middle Brighton. Francis Patrick died on 1 June 1927 at the Alfred Hospital when his daughter was six months old.

Between 1939 and 1949 Frances lived in Creswick. She began her artistic training with Isabel Lindsay in 1940, at the tender age of thirteen, in the Lindsay home studio in Creswick. The Lindsays could see Frances’ artistic potential even as a young girl. Their appreciation of Frances’ talents proved prescient as she held her first exhibition of paintings in Creswick at the age of sixteen. The lessons as a youngster ignited Frances’ passion for art, a passion that would continue for her entire lifetime. Frances would continue to paint and exhibit her works throughout her life.

Frances commenced a four-year Commercial Arts studentship at the Ballarat School of Mines in 1942 and studied under May Grigg. In Ballarat, she also studied under Geoff Mainwaring, who was an official war artist. Geoff and Frances became friends and he was a significant artistic influence for her. Frances then continued her studies under William Dargie at the National Gallery School in Melbourne from 1949 to 1951. She completed a further three years of study in William Dargie’s studio as a private student. These three years were spent with “Dargie’s select group of private drawing students which included Fred Williams, John Brack, Shirley Bourne, Ray Horsfield and Laurie Dawes”. (Art Streams: News in Arts and Cultural Heritage, Vol. 2, No. 1, Feb–March 1997, p. 26)

In 1950 Frances married Ian Hibbins whom she met in Creswick. Ian studied at the Creswick Forestry School from 1946 to 1948. He continued his forestry studies at the University of Melbourne and graduated in 1952. Ian and Frances lived in Stawell during his appointment as district forester and, in 1955, they moved permanently to Upper Ferntree Gully. Their son, Guy, was born in 1960.

Frances took inspiration from her surroundings to create beautiful portraits, still lifes, interiors and landscapes. Her artistic style “has been described as classical romantic. She used traditional techniques and strongly moulded forms to produce paintings true to the traditions of that important epoch in Australian art ... and her work is distinguished by an accurate and in later years brilliant sense of colour true to each subject”. The French impressionists and the tonalist theory of Max Meldrum were influences on her work. The revered Heidelberg School artists that preceded her were also a great influence. In the manner of the Heidelberg artists, Frances’ art was informed by the importance of the “the visual appearances of the world around her”. (Art Streams: News in Arts and Cultural Heritage, Vol. 2, No. 1, Feb–March 1997, p. 26) 

Frances died on 30 January 1996 and a retrospective exhibition of her art was held at the Eltham Wiregrass Gallery in February 1997.

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