Grace Crowley Miss M Roberts

Grace Crowley was one of a group of Sydney artists whose progressive works challenged the prevailing conservatism of the Archibald Prize in the 1930s. Such modernist portraits were antithetical to the traditional work of WB McInnes, Charles Wheeler and John Longstaff, all respected – and winning – Archibald artists in the 1930s.

Crowley’s decision to become a professional artist was extraordinary for her time. Against her parents’ wishes, she moved from rural New South Wales to Sydney and established a successful career as an artist and educator. Studying with Julian Ashton from 1915, then becoming his assistant and a teacher at his school, she left for France in 1926 with fellow instructor Anne Dangar. In Paris she absorbed the theories of cubism at André Lhote’s academy, then under Albert Gleizes, who influenced her development towards complete abstraction in the 1940s. Returning to Australia, Crowley joined artist Dorrit Black – with whom she had painted in Europe – in Sydney at her newly established Modern Art Centre. In 1932 Crowley established the Crowley-Fizelle School with painter Rah Fizelle.

This was Crowley’s second Archibald work (the first, of artist Gwen Ridley, was in 1930). Also known as Portrait in grey, it is now in University Art Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney.

Recent research has uncovered the subject of the work: Marjorie Roberts, a professional artist’s model, who also sat for Dorrit Black and Arthur Murch in Sydney to support her family during the Depression.