Vida Lahey: colour and modernism

LEE Lunchtime 1932 weroorJ.! i r n paper/ 34 x 43.5cm: 51 x 62cm (framed) Collection' Shirley Lahey, Brisbane Lunchtime is persona) in reference: it shows glassware trcm Italy that Labey brought home from her European , Cavels as a wedding gift for her brother Eric and his —42 : We , Vera Affleck. Co rough the work was executed at Wonga Wallan the Lahey family home in Canungra 12 years after the event, the link to marriage also appears in the vase of pansies. The French began a custom of presenting a bride with a bouquet containing pansies: the name 'pansy' derives from the French word pensde, meaning thought or remembrance, and the flower was so named for its resemblance to a human face. Pansies are also the traditional flowers for celebrating a first wedding anniversary. Tea time (Tasmania) Oil cn canvas/ 55,2x/r, 1.• Purchased 1961 / Collection: University of Queeneieno Lahey met fellow artist Mildred Lovett in Brisbane /',': Lahey settled there with her husband, Stanley Paterr, in 1913. Lahey and Lovett maintained a warm frienO:' from this time on even though Lahey was away I' Australia between 1916 and 1921: she travelled t London to establish a home base for her brother who were fighting in World War One, before stuo and travelling in Europe. When Lahey returned Australia. a 'Tasmanian subject' when the work was first exhibitec in Brisbane in 1924. As the higher key of Lahey's pai, here makes clear, it is in her Tasmanian subjects tha: we can discern the heoinnir:u of hor rrxoerimen'at with colour OPPOSITE Sultry noon [Central Station, Brisbane] 1931 Oil on canvas on p4',.'..ic'od / 40.7 x 49 2 c / Purchased 1983 Collection' Queensland AC Ge/cry