Emma Minnie Boyd

Australian artist Emma Minnie Boyd (1858-1936) was born into the privileged à Beckett family and became known to family and friends as Minnie.

While it was rare for women in late-nineteenth-century colonial Victoria to receive an art education, Minnie's family nurtured her artistic talent and she studied at the National Gallery School in Melbourne.

She would eventually become one of Australia’s most significant women artists of the late nineteenth century.

In the 1860s the à Beckett family moved to Harkaway near Berwick, east of Melbourne, where they established their property The Grange.

The surrounding landscape was to provide much joy and inspiration for Minnie and it was where she painted The quail shooter.

In the late afternoon light a diminutive figure stands mid-ground in a flat, scrubby landscape.

In the background, against the low blue hills and soft sky, tall gums rise like sentinels on the skyline, their presence overshadowing that of the quail shooter.

Painted outdoors, this lyrical study has a sense of emotional engagement with a familiar landscape.

In this period of strong nationalistic sentiment, the tiny human figure does not dominate the landscape; rather he is represented as a part of it. | Source: © National Gallery of Australia

Emma Minnie Boyd (1858-1936), nata Emma Minnie à Beckett, è stata una pittrice ad olio ed acquarello, incisore, scultrice, illustratrice di libri per bambini, pittrice di ceramiche e di schizzi.

Boyd espose pubblicamente tra il 1874-1932.

Mostrò alla Victorian Artists Society, alla Centennial International Exhibition 1888 (Melbourne), alla Royal Academy of Arts (Londra) ed in una mostra congiunta con suo marito alla Como House di Melbourne nel 1902, tra gli altri luoghi.

Alla mostra del 1902 furono vendute opere d'arte per un valore di oltre cento sterline e furono date commissioni per ulteriori copie delle opere vendute.

Aveva talento per i paesaggi ad acquerello, sebbene dipingesse sia ad acquerello che ad olio, ed un mix di interni, figure, ritratti, nature morte e studi di fiori.

Fa parte della Boyd Artistic Dynasty, una famiglia di artisti australiani, iniziata con Emma e suo marito Arthur ed il lavoro che hanno creato che ha influenzato i loro figli e nipoti a intraprendere la carriera artistica.