Clarice Marjoribanks Beckett Paintings

Clarice Marjoribanks Beckett, an Australian artist, was born in Casterton, Victoria, in 1887. She was one of the early Australian painters to be influenced by the Impressionist movement, and her work is known for its atmospheric and ethereal qualities. Beckett studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School where she was taught by Frederick McCubbin and later by Max Meldrum, whose tonalist approach deeply influenced her style.

Beckett's painting career was largely confined to her immediate environment due to family responsibilities, which limited her ability to travel. Despite these constraints, she managed to produce a large body of work, consisting mostly of small oil paintings of suburban and coastal scenes, often painted en plein air, capturing the changing effects of light and atmosphere.

Clarice Beckett's work was not widely recognized during her lifetime and she had to contend with a lack of critical acceptance, often being overshadowed by her male contemporaries. She held solo exhibitions, but her Impressionistic and tonalist works were often dismissed by critics of the time who favored more traditional styles.

Her life was cut short when she died of pneumonia at the age of 48, in 1935. After her death, her work was largely forgotten and many of her paintings were destroyed or lost. However, in the 1970s, Beckett's work was rediscovered, and her contribution to Australian art has since been reassessed and celebrated. Today, Clarice Beckett is recognized as a significant Australian artist whose work captures the subtle nuances of the Australian landscape and light with a distinctive poetic sensibility. Exhibitions of her work and the growing scholarship on her life and art have helped to secure her place in the canon of Australian art history.