Clarice Beckett
Misty evening, Beaumaris
Regarded as one of Melbourne's leading early modern painters,
Clarice Beckett spent the early part of the 1890s in Ballarat as a
student at Queen's College. Strongly influenced by the tonal
paintings and theories of her teacher Max Meldrum, Clarice
Beckett's work was more lyrical and subtle than most
Meldrumites. Painted near her home in the seaside suburb of
Beaumaris, Misty Evening is devoid of any harsh lines and jarring
contrasts and captures the essence of the scene rather than the
descriptive detail.
The donor of this work, herself a student of Max Meldrum
around1919, collected paintings by various students of his school
in the 1920s and bequeathed seven works to the Art Gallery of
Ballarat in 1937.