Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s

88 Under a Modern Sun: Art in Queensland 1930s–1950s Gwendolyn Grant , Winter sunshine 1939 Gwendolyn Grant and WG grant Gwendolyn Grant studied art at the Brisbane Technical College under R Godfrey Rivers and subsequently at the National Gallery School, Melbourne (1907–11), where she was taught by Frederick McCubbin and Bernard Hall. Through them, she developed an academic style of Impressionism, which she promoted in the reviews and articles that she wrote for Brisbane’s Daily Mail . In one editorial, Grant encouraged artists to ‘Go out and study Nature with all your heart and mind: love her beauty, and her moods’, while separately expressing some scepticism for the Australian Modernist movement. 1 Grant’s Winter sunshine 1939 embodies her approach to painting, celebrating her love of sunlight and domestic subjects, which provided her with an opportunity to quietly assert her independent spirit. Following her marriage to WG (William Gregory) Grant in 1915, she continued to exhibit and was particularly active during the 1920s and 1930s. The pair were energetic members of the Royal Queensland Art Society, of which WG Grant was made a life member in 1937, and Gwendolyn Grant in 1965. WG Grant worked as an accountant, attending evening classes under Rivers at the Brisbane Technical College around 1900. 2 He maintained his painting practice at night, often working from sketches, and painting en plein air alongside Gwendolyn during trips to Redcliffe, Sandgate and Coolum. 3 From the mid 1940s, WG Grant concentrated on watercolour, adopting a broad-brush technique and a vivid palette that favoured the modernist colour harmonies of yellow and green. In her review of Grant’s 1954 memorial exhibition, held at the Queensland National Art Gallery, critic Dr Gertrude Langer indicated that his ‘colour harmonies reveal life‑enhancing optimism, courage and generosity. Nature is not anxiously copied but joyously experienced by a man of such temperament.’ 4 Notes 1 Gwendolyn Grant, quoted in Keith Bradbury & Ann Grant, Gwendolyn & WG Grant, Their Art and Life , GMR Grant, Brisbane, 1990, pp.28, 30. 2 Bettina MacAulay, William Grant, Gwendolyn Grant: Partners in Art , Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 1990, unpaginated. 3 Bradbury & Grant, pp.54–5. 4 Gertrude Langer, ‘Grant display shows artist’s optimism, courage’, Courier-Mail , April 1954.