Mary Packer Harris
{{Short description|Scottish artist and art teacher (1891–1978)}}
{{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}
Mary Packer Harris D.A. (Edin.) (30 July 1891 – 26 August 1978) was a Scottish artist and art teacher with a considerable career in South Australia.
Early life and training
Mary was born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire the only daughter of musician and beekeeper Clement Antrobus Harris (c. 1862 – 12 February 1942) and his wife Mary Elizabeth Harris ( – 14 February 1937). Educated in Scotland she attended Morrison's Academy and Perth Academy before graduating with a diploma from the Edinburgh College of Art.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55029467 |title=Art on the Railways |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |volume=XCI |issue=26,589 |location=South Australia |date=17 March 1926 |accessdate=1 September 2016 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1913 she did a post-graduate course in woodblock printing with F. Morley Fletcher, director of the College. She trained as a teacher with the Scottish Education Department and taught at Buckie, Banffshire, Scotland, then from 1918 at the Ayr Academy.
South Australia
An elder brother, Antrobus, was killed in the Flanders trenches in 1916.{{Citation |last=Tuck |first=Ruth |title=Mary Packer Harris (1891–1978) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/harris-mary-packer-10438/text18507 |access-date=2025-01-22 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}} Another brother, John Brocas Harris ( –1967) had earlier emigrated to South Australia, served at Gallipoli with the Army Medical Corps and was badly wounded. He married Gwendoline Mary Colyer ( –1959) in 1917, and settled in Gawler, where he was a noted horticulturist and horticultural inspector at Gawler, and later at the Government orchard, Blackwood. His eldest son Dr. Ian Harris born 12 February 1920 was awarded DSC for navy heroism. In response to his urging, Mary and her parents emigrated in 1921. In 1922 she accepted a position with the SA School of Arts and Crafts, where she was to teach for 30 years in a wide range of mediums: oil and watercolor, lino and woodblock printing, tapestry and embroidery.
Harris was a longtime member of the Royal SA Society of Arts (1922–67) and also exhibited with the Contemporary Art Society. Fellow teachers included her friend Ruth Tuck. Students included Rex Wood, Jacqueline Hick and John Olday. She lived at "Bundilla", 116 Walkerville Terrace, Walkerville, which she filled with her own and her students' art, and with a lovingly tended native bird garden punctuated with sculptures by William Ricketts and her nephew Quintin Gilbert Harris (1928–1985), son of J. B. Harris (above). Her bequest of this home to the Town of Walkerville was declined, but the Council did accept the many works of art, including sculptures by her friend Ola Cohn.{{cite web|url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/mary-packer-harris/biography/|author=Menz, Christopher Menz|title=Mary Packer Harris|accessdate=1 September 2016}} She was a leading member of Adelaide's Lyceum Club.
Personal life
Harris was a member of the Society of Friends, worshipping at the Friends Meeting House, North Adelaide. In common with a great number of Quakers she was active in the peace movement, and was a vegetarian.
Exhibitions
- Her first one-woman show was held in March 1927 at the Society of Arts' gallery at the Institute building, North Terrace, which brought her versatility to public attention.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129248750 |title=Posters and Paintings |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=VIII |issue=1,155 |location=South Australia |date=28 March 1927 |accessdate=2 September 2016 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}
- "The Testament of Beauty" with nine of her students, including Ivor Francis and David Dallwitz in November 1939 was held at the Australian Art Gallery, Rundle Street.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74429627 |title=Novel Crafts At Art Exhibition |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |date=1 November 1939 |accessdate=1 September 2016 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}} The exhibition's title comes from a poem by Robert Bridges.
- A one-woman show in April 1946 attracted a predominantly female audience.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129994164 |title=Art Show |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=46 |issue=7,079 |location=South Australia |date=10 April 1946 |accessdate=1 September 2016 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Collections
- Many of her works are held by the Town of Walkerville
- Several of her woodcut and linocut prints are held by the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
- The Art Gallery of South Australia has one item: an embroidered firescreen [https://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home/Collection/detail.jsp?accNo=8011A213A The Indian upon God], carved frame by Edwin Newsham (1891–1989).
Publications
Harris was a prolific writer; her Art, the Torch of Life was published by Rigby, Ltd. in 1946{{cite news |date=13 December 1946 |title=20,000 Years of Artists And Of Art |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128372059 |accessdate=1 September 2016 |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=47 |issue=7,290}} and much else is held by the State Library of South Australia in manuscript or typescript form.{{cite web |title=Harris, Mary Packer, 1891-1978 PRG 657 |url=http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/archivaldocs/prg/PRG657_MaryPHarris_serieslist.pdf |accessdate=1 September 2016 |publisher=State Library of South Australia}}
- The Skyline, a one act play in four scenes written after the death of her brother in Flanders during World War I.
- {{Citation | author1=Harris, Mary Packer | title=In One Splendour Spun : autobiography of a Quaker artist | date=1971 | publisher=M.P. Harris | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/22021274 | accessdate=1 September 2016 }}
- {{Citation | author1=Harris, Mary Packer | title=The Cosmic Rhythm of Art and Literature (aka Art the Torch of Life) | date=1948 | publisher=Cork | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/191755745 | accessdate=1 September 2016 }}
References
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Category:People educated at Morrison's Academy
Category:People educated at Perth Academy
Category:Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art
Category:Australian women painters