Clarice Beckett Collection

  Clarice Beckett (1887-1935) was an Australian Tonalist painter whose lyrical and evocative work celebrated modernity, and the quiet beauty  of the city and suburbs. Her work was challenging for its time, and Beckett’s story as an artist who never compromised her unique vision and  someone who  continued to paint ‘against the odds’ is compelling and inspirational while also being moving and poignant. Following her death  in 1935 at the age of 48, Beckett’s work, which had achieved some measure of success during her lifetime, was all but forgotten. It  was not  until the 1970s, when a large group of works abandoned in a hay shed in rural Victoria were found and subsequently mounted in an  exhibition,  that her contribution began to be reappraised. (photo: Beckett painting at Mt Macedon, Victoria, circa late 1920s)