Celebrating a Forgotten Woman Artist: Reflections on the Conservation of Clarice Beckett’s Work

Clarice Beckett (1887–1935) was an Australian painter and a member of the ‘tonalist’ school; landscapes at sunrise or sunset and in foggy, wet conditions were her typical subjects. She spent her life caring for her parents, painting en plein air in the mornings and evenings. She received very little recognition in her lifetime and was forgotten after her premature death at the age of 48. Her estate, stored in an open shed in a rural property, was discovered in the 1970s, when only about 360 of the paintings were salvageable. How Beckett’s work was conserved at the time is still influencing today’s conservation decision-making. Conservation in the 1970s in Australia was very interventive. Most of these paintings are heavily repainted, masking stains, ingrained dirt, accretions, and losses due to extremely poor storage conditions. A few undamaged works kept in private collections provided evidence for the original appearance of her work as an ensemble. Today, intangible aspects of a work and material history are recognised as important elements in decision-making. This could open different options for conserving and presenting Beckett’s work. The paper discusses whether including history of damage as a significant part of the artist’s oeuvre could contribute to the interpretation of her work, given the myths attached to the artist, now recognised as one of the most important Australian painters of the interwar period.