Spotlight on ... My Family Connection to a Well-Known Australian Artist.

Digging beyond the history of your direct ancestors and extended blood relatives can lead to the most incredible discoveries and unearth connections that can really brighten your day.  That's exactly what happened to me just recently when I stumbled upon a connection to one of Australia's well-known and loved female artists.  

After grabbing an interesting looking calendar for the 2022 year from a display in a bookstore, I scanned the information on the back cover and a name jumped out at me.  

I was sure the name 'Proctor' was in my family tree, but I couldn't recall the exact details at that moment.  

Of course, I had to buy the calendar, that was a given!  

Upon returning home and searching my family tree, up popped the name of my great grandaunt's husband - William Consett Proctor.

I took a closer look at William and did a little more research.  

Before William had married my paternal great grand aunt, Julia Cusack, he was married to Kathleen Roberts.  William and Kathleen had two children together, daughter Alethea (called Thea) and son Frederick.  The artist listed on the back of my 2022 Australian Women in Art calendar, was William's first-born child from his first marriage.

What a find to start off the new year!  I have a connection to this well-known Australian artist through William's second marriage.  Alethea (Thea) Proctor was the stepdaughter of my great grand aunt.

Thea Proctor aged 21
Photo shared by Joan Cucchiaro

Alethea Mary Proctor (known as Thea Proctor) was a highly regarded and prolific  Australian painter, print maker and designer.  

Born in 1879 in Armidale, New South Wales, she was the eldest child of William Consort Proctor and Kathleen Janet Louisa Roberts. 

Alethea's father was an English-born solicitor and member of the Legislative Assembly. 

 

Her mother was Queensland born, and was a cousin of the Australian impressionist artist John Peter Russell (1858-1930).

Alethea's parents had married in 1878 and lived a very comfortable life in the suburb of Hunters Hill during the 1880s.

Sadly, the happy family life did not last.  Less than 15 years later, in 1892, when Alethea was 13 years old, her parents separated.  

This was when Alethea, her mother and her brother went to live with her maternal grandparents at Bowral.  

Her grandparents continued the encouragement of her artistic pursuits as her mother had done for quite some time.  Alethea later recalled that her mother had been very ambitious for both her children, teaching them the violin from an early age and also ensuring they had lessons in singing, piano and painting.  At Bowral, Alethea attended Lynthorpe Ladies' College where her artistic tendencies and talents were directed into painting and drawing studies.

In 1896, when she was only 16, Alethea (Thea) moved to Sydney to attend Julian Ashton's Sydney Art School.  By this time her father, William Consett Proctor, was living with my paternal great grandaunt Julia Cusack and they already had one son together.  One year later, in 1897, Alethea's parents were divorced, in a very public proceeding, just before her 18th birthday. 

Alethea's father and my great grand aunt went on to have four more children.  They finally married in 1903, a couple of months before the birth of their last child.  I am not sure if Alethea ever had any contact with her stepbrothers or stepsisters, my first cousins twice removed!  I doubt it very much.

Alethea's earliest work, 1897-1899, included bookplates, black and white studies, posters and some watercolours.  Most of her exhibited work at this time depicted mainly women in decorative compositions.  Her mother's ambitions for her though resulted in them both setting sail for England in 1903.

When she first moved to London, she was attending the St. John's Wood School in the company of her close friend George Lambert. She then studied privately with George. Their friendship was to be lifelong and intimate.

In London, between 1903 and 1912, and then between 1914 and 1921, she exhibited with the Royal Society, the New English Art Club, the International Society, and the Senefelder Club.  Her work also received exposure in Venice, Rome, Paris, Berlin and Ghent.

Self portrait, 1921 - lithograph by Thea Proctor (aged 42). In the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, ACT.

When Alethea (Thea) returned to Melbourne, Australia, in 1921, she generated support for modernism and became an intrinsic figure in the development of the Sydney Contemporary Group, established in 1926.  

According to a short biographical piece published by the Australian National Portrait Gallery:

"When she returned permanently to Sydney in 1921, her art and ideas were at the forefront of contemporary art and design in Australia; her authoritative opinions on decoration, colour, interior design, flower arrangement, ballet and fashion were widely published in new journals such as The Home (for which she designed many covers) and Art in Australia. An exhibitor in the watershed Burdekin House exhibition in 1929, she was a mentor and champion for young interior designers including Marion Hall Best. Although she maintained a large and varied circle of friends (and adversaries), she was a lifelong singleton, living very frugally in rented accommodation, making a slender living from drawing classes, periodic exhibitions at the Macquarie Galleries and commissioned drawings of Eastern Suburbs children." 

In 2005, the National Portrait Gallery held its second only exhibition that followed the life of a single person.  The first was titled: Rarely Everage: The lives of Barry Humphries.  The second was titled: The World of Thea Proctor.

If only I'd known about the connection back then!!!  I would have made every effort to view that exhibition.

Alethea (Thea) Proctor worked right up until her death in 1966, at the age of 86.  

If you follow this link: Thea Proctor: In Their Own Words,  you will hear Alethea (Thea) herself speaking as she talks about her work.

Examples of some of her work:  Artworks

Wikipedia page:  Thea Proctor

Entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography:  Proctor, Althea Mary (Thea)

Alethea (Thea) worked tirelessly to promote John Peter Russell's art.  You may remember I had mentioned that John was a cousin of Althea's mother.  

His life story is also quite fascinating.  After the death of his father and inheriting a sizeable fortune, John had moved to Europe in his late teenage years where he was to become a close personal friend of Vincent Van Gogh and Auguste Rodin, and is widely recognised as having had a significant influence on the young artist Matisse.  

John Peter Russell also has an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography:  Russell, John Peter 

He has a Wikipedia page as well: John Russell (Australian Painter) 

More information can be found here:  Artist Profile