Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1879 Armidale, New South Wales, Australia

Died: 1966 Potts Point, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Year of Migration to the UK: 1903

Other name/s: Alethea Mary Proctor, Althea Proctor

Biography

Painter and printmaker Alethea Mary (Thea) Proctor was born in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia on 2 October 1879. After her parents separated in 1892, she moved to Bowral with her maternal grandparents who supported her artistic aspirations. From 1896 she attended Julian Ashton's art school, where among her fellow students was painter George W. Lambert, who would become a lifelong friend and mentor. Proctor avoided landscape and still life, focusing on figurative paintings, depicting mainly women in decorative compositions.

In 1903 she moved to London with her mother and settled in Chelsea. Studying alongside Lambert, she attended the art school in South Kensington as well as private insitutions, including St John’s Wood Art School. In mid-1905 her mother returned to Australia, but Proctor decided to remain in England. Despite financial hardship, she preferred the stimulating environment of London and the greater learning and exhibiting opportunities that the city offered her. In order to make ends meet, she initially worked as an illustrator and produced portrait commissions. She also started modelling and featured in a series of Lambert’s illustrations for The Strand Magazine. As Australian painter Sir Arthur Streeton pointed out, life was very tough for Australian artists in London, both financially and socially, especially for women (Sydney Morning Herald 1906, p. 7). In an interview Proctor later recalled that at one point her clothes even fell apart, and because of this she felt she had to ‘drop’ all the people she had first met in London – who could have helped her by giving her commissions for portraits (Morgan 2004, National Gallery of Victoria website).

In England, Proctor mixed with other artists, including William Orpen, Augustus John, Philip Wilson Steer, as well as with Australian expatriate painters Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and Charles Conder. It was Conder who first inspired her to paint fans. Proctor was attracted by their difficult shape, while the special qualities of silk allowed her to experiment with new media. Proctor’s fans often presented a romantic depiction of an idyllic world and, at the same time, reflected her interest in historical costume. In addition, she took inspiration from the drawings of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Japanese prints, Chelsea Art Club balls, and the Ballets Russes, which she saw in 1911 and which sparked her interest in ballet and theatre. Proctor’s art was characterised by a ‘combination of dreamy fin-de-siècle atmospheres and the streamlined emphasis of modern design. These elements became embedded in her distinct female figures that the Australian critic Ethel Anderson referred to as her ‘slender Amazons’’ (Art Gallery NSW website). In 1907 her work A Portrait was included in the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition and she subsequently exhibited in large group shows at a number of English venues. In 1908 she exhibited alongside other Australian female artists in the New South Wales Court of the Australian Pavilion at the Franco-British exhibition. On this occasion, she shared the first award with noted fellow New Zealand artist, Frances Hodgkins. In 1909 she participated in the Goupil Gallery’s new salon of watercolours, drawings and pastels, The Observer newspaper praising her fans and ‘imaginative compositions’. Her watercolour Yip-i-addy, inspired by the song of the same name from the popular musical Our Miss Gibbs (which premièred at the Gaiety Theatre in London), was shown at the Goupil Gallery in 1910. Full of women in Edwardian dress and girls in Pierrot costumes, the musical was a great source of inspiration for artists and confirmed Proctor’s fascination with English music hall (Morgan 2004, National Gallery of Victoria website). In 1911 she took part in a major joint exhibition with six male artists at the Goupil Gallery, showing both pictures and a fan entitled Fashions in 1910. The Atheaneum commented: ‘Miss Thea Proctor’s drawings are examples of violence of line as noticeable as the violence of colour of the pictures: her figures reel from side to side with much exuberance of curve’ (The Atheaneum 1911, p. 426). In 1912 she visited Australia, holding exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Back in England in 1914, she studied lithography at Chelsea Polytechnic under F. Ernest Jackson, who was among the founders of the Senefelder Club in 1909, which promoted the medium in England. She exhibited with the Club in 1918–20 and with the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. In 1918 she participated in the exhibition, War and Peace Including War Pictures Painted for and Lent by the Commonwealth of Australia, held at the Royal Academy of Arts.

In 1921 Proctor returned to Australia, where she championed modernist design and became a prominent figure in Sydney art circles. She wrote and produced illustrations for Home magazine. She also taught, wrote and lectured on art, design and interior decoration, and was an active member of many artists' groups. Thea Proctor died in Potts Point, Sydney New South Wales, Australia on 29 June 1966. Most of her work is represented in major Australian museums. In England, the Victoria and Albert Museum is the only public institution to hold one of her works.

Related books

Pamela Gerrish Nunn, `Owning Femininity: Thea Proctor and the Australian Avant-Garde`, in Janice Helland ed., Women Artists and the Decorative Arts (London: Routledge, 2019)
Andrew Sayers, Sarah Engledow and Barry Humphries, The World of Thea Proctor (Canberra: Craftsman House in association with the National Portrait Gallery, 2005)
Helen Morgan, `Thea Proctor in London 1910-11: Her Early Involvement with Fashion`, Art Bulletin of Victoria, vol. 36, 1996, pp. 27-36
Mary Mackay, `Almost Dancing: Thea Proctor and the Modern Woman` in Maryanne Dever ed., Wallflowers and Witches: Women and Culture in Australia 1910-1945 (St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, 1994), pp. 26-37
Jan Minchin and Roger Butler, Thea Proctor: The Prints (Glebe, N.S.W. : Resolution Press, 1980)
Thea Proctor, `The Lesson of the Russian Ballet`, Art in Australia, no 3, June 1926
James McDonald, `An Interview with Thea Proctor`, Art in Australia, Vol.1, No. 1, February 1922, n.p.
'Mr. Von Glehn and Other Painters', The Atheaneum, 15 April 1911, p. 426
'The New English Art Club', The Field, 9 November 1910, p. 978
'Art Notes: a New Salon', The Observer 4 April 1909, p. 7
'Exhibition Of Australian Women Artists' Work' The Times, 24 June 1908
‘Our Artists Abroad: A Chat with Arthur Streeton’, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 December 1906, p. 7.

Public collections

Related organisations

Chelsea Polytechnic (student)
Senefelder Club (member)
South Kensington Art School (student)
St John's Wood Art School (student)

Selected exhibitions

Artists of the British Empire, Royal Institute Galleries (1937)
Senefelder Club (1920)
Goupil Gallery Salon (1919)
Senefelder Club (1919 and 1918)
War and Peace Including War Pictures Painted for and Lent by the Commonwealth of Australia, Royal Academy of Arts (1918)
Exhibition of Works of Patrick W. Adam, R.S.A., J. C. W. Cossaar, Arthur Friedenson, R. Gwelo Goodman, Alexander Jamieson, Thea Proctor, Douglas Wells, Goupil Gallery (1911)
Goupil Gallery Salon (1911)
Goupil Gallery Salon (1910)
Royal Academy of Arts (1910)
Watercolour, Pastel and Drawing Salon, Goupil Gallery (1909)
Royal Academy of Arts (1908)
Exhibition of Australian Women Artists' Work, Franco-British Exhibition, Shepherd's Bush (1908)
Royal Academy of Arts (1907)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Thea Proctor]