Agnes Goodsir

{{Infobox artist

| name = Agnes Goodsir

| image = Agnes goodsir1.jpg

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1864|6|18|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Portland, Victoria

| death_date = {{Death date|1939|8|11|df=yes}}

| death_place = Paris, France

| nationality = Australian

| field = portrait painting

| training = Bendigo School of Mines and Industries (1898-1899)
Académie Delécluse, Paris, France (1899)

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File:Agnes Goodsir00.jpg

Agnes Noyes Goodsir (18 June 1864 – 11 August 1939) was an Australian portrait painter who lived in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.{{cite web |url=http://www.daao.org.au/bio/agnes-goodsir/ |title=Agnes Goodsir: biography | publisher=Design & Art Australia Online | location= Paddington, New South Wales | date = 19 October 2011 |accessdate=19 September 2012}}

Biography

Goodsir was born in Portland, Victoria, Australia, one of eleven children born to David James Cook Goodsir, Commissioner of Customs at Melbourne, and Elizabeth Archer (née Tomlins).

Her early art training started with Arthur T. Woodward at the Bendigo School of Mines and Industries from 1898 to 1899, and in 1899 some of her work was raffled in Bendigo to partly finance her study in Paris. The years following World War I saw a virtual exodus of Australian artists on a sort of Grand Tour to Paris, all intent on being part of the explosion of the arts taking place there. Painters like Rupert Bunny, Stella Bowen and Max Meldrum were drawn there by the appeal of the Left Bank. Others like Margaret Preston and Grace Crowley were inspired to develop in new directions by post-war Parisian art.

Goodsir attended the Académie Delécluse, the Académie Julian (under Jean-Paul Laurens){{Cite web|title=Musée d'Orsay: Notice d'Artiste: Agnes Goodsir|url=https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/espace-professionnels/professionnels/chercheurs/rech-rec-art-home/notice-artiste.html?nnumid=119135|url-status=live|access-date=2020-08-27|website=musee-orsay.fr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829110628/https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/espace-professionnels/professionnels/chercheurs/rech-rec-art-home/notice-artiste.html?nnumid=119135 |archive-date=29 August 2019 }} and then the Académie Colarossi. From about 1912 she shuttled between London and Paris, but finally settled in Paris in 1921 at 18 rue de l'Odéon.{{cite journal |first=Bronwyn |last=Watson |title=Public Works: Agnes Goodsir |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/visual-arts/public-works-agnes-goodsir/story-fn9d3avm-1226157870713 | location = Surry Hills, New South Wales | journal = The Australian |date=8 October 2011 | accessdate = 18 September 2012 | ref = {{harvid|The_Australian|2011}} }}

During her time in Paris Goodsir painted portraits of cosmopolitan women including her partner, Rachel Dunne, nicknamed Cherry. The Parisienne, a portrait of Cherry was painted around 1924.{{Cite web|last=Teffer|first=Nicola|title=Agnes Goodsir|url=https://nga.gov.au/knowmyname/artists.cfm?artistirn=11585|url-status=live|access-date=25 June 2020|website=National Gallery of Australia|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618144931/https://nga.gov.au/knowmyname/artists.cfm?artistirn=11585 |archive-date=18 June 2020 }}

Her work was acclaimed and exhibited at the New Salon, the Salon des Indépendants, and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris as well as at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute in London.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

On a short visit to Australia in 1927, she exhibited at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney and the Fine Arts Gallery in Melbourne. In 1938, four of her oils were shown at the sesquicentennial exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.{{Cite web |title=Agnes Goodsir :: biography at :: at Design and Art Australia Online |url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/agnes-goodsir/biography/ |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=www.daao.org.au}}

She was a member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts.{{cite web |url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22863317-16947,00.html |title=Views from the Left Bank |location=Surry Hills, New South Wales |work=The Australian |date=4 December 2007 |accessdate=10 June 2009 |ref={{harvid|The_Australian|2007}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311051921/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22863317-16947,00.html |archive-date=11 March 2008 |url-status=dead }}

Goodsir died in Paris, France in 1939.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

Goodsir's work showed strong composition and technique, favouring oils over watercolours. Despite turning out a large number of still lifes and interiors, her forté was portraits, including Katharine Goodson, Leo Tolstoy, Ellen Terry, Banjo Paterson, Bertrand Russell, Dame Eadith Walker, Countess Pinci and Italian leader Benito Mussolini.

Goodsir's work featured among that of 50 women in a 2025 exhibition co-presented by Agsa and the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) and entitled 'Dangerously Modern Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890-1940'.{{Cite news |last=Marsh |first=Walter |date=6 June 2025 |title=This is the modern world |work=The Guardian Weekly |pages=55-56}}

Collections

Works are held in:

the National Gallery of Victoria - The letter, (Woman reading){{Cite web|title=Agnes GOODSIR {{!}} Artists {{!}} NGV|url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/1872/|access-date=2020-08-27|website=ngv.vic.gov.au}}
the Bendigo Art Gallery{{Cite web|title=Our 19th century art collection|url=https://www.bendigoregion.com.au/bendigo-art-gallery/collections|url-status=live|access-date=2020-08-27|website=Bendigo Art Gallery|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190307173418/https://www.bendigoregion.com.au/bendigo-art-gallery/collections |archive-date=7 March 2019 }}
the National Gallery of Australia - In a Latin Quarter studio{{Cite web|last=Goodsir|first=Agnes|title=In a Latin Quarter studio|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=43126|access-date=2020-08-27|website=Item held by National Gallery of Australia}} and The Parisienne.{{Cite web|last=Goodsir|first=Agnes|title=The Parisienne|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=169716|access-date=2020-08-27|website=Item held by National Gallery of Australia}}
the Art Gallery of New South Wales - Chinese skirt{{Cite web|title=Chinese skirt, 1933 by Agnes Goodsir|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/6617/|access-date=2020-08-27|website=artgallery.nsw.gov.au}}
the State Library of New South Wales - A. B. Paterson, Banjo{{Cite web|last=Goodsir|first=Agnes|title=A. B. Paterson, Banjo|url=https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1cvjue2/ADLIB110335868|access-date=2021-02-10|website=Item held by State Library of New South Wales}}

Legacy

The Goodsir Scholarship awarded by the Bendigo Art Gallery is named in memory of her.[http://www.bendigoartgallery.com.au/Page/Page.asp?Page_Id=236&h=0 The Goodsir Scholarship] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224233312/http://www.bendigoartgallery.com.au/Page/Page.asp?Page_Id=236&h=0 |date=24 February 2011 }}, Bendigo Art Gallery, 2010.

In 1978 a street in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm was named Goodsir Place in her honour.{{Cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240628906|title=Schedule 'B' National Memorials Ordinance 1928-1972 Street Nomenclature List of Additional Names with Reference to Origin - Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Special (National : 1977 - 2012) - 8 Feb 1978|newspaper=Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Special|date=8 February 1978 |language=en|access-date=2019-09-03}}

Gallery

Agnes Goodsir 1864-1939 selfportrait.jpg|self portrait (circa 1910)

Goodsir Woman reading.jpg|Woman reading (circa 1910)

Agnes Goodsir02.jpg|Hydrangeas

Agnes Goodsir03.jpg|Girl with Cigarette (1925)

Agnes Goodsir07.jpg|The Parisienne (circa 1924)

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, 1927 Goodsir.jpg|Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, 1927

Agnes Goodsir

Biography

Collections

Legacy

Gallery

References

Further reading