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'''Adelaide Perry''' (1891–1973) was an influential Australian artist, printmaker and teacher.

{{Artist infobox
| name             = Adelaide Perry
| image            = https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adelaide-Perry-Taronga-Wharf-1939.jpg
| image_size       = 
| birth_name       = Adelaide Elizabeth Perry
| caption          = Taronga Wharf, 1939
| birth_date       = 23 June 1891
| death_date       = 1973
| known_for        = Artist, printmaker and teacher
| birth_place      = Beechworth, Victoria
| nationality      = Australian
| death_place      = Killara, NSW
}}

== Biography ==
Perry (1891–1973) was born in Beechworth, Victoria.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=Hayman|first=Charlotte|title=Perry, Adelaide Elizabeth (1891–1973)|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/perry-adelaide-elizabeth-11374|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|place=Canberra|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=2020-08-15}}</ref> Her parents were Richard Hall Perry, solicitor, and Eliza Elizabeth (nee Reardon). After her father died, her mother remarried and the family moved to New Zealand.

Perry returned to Melbourne in 1914 attending the [[National Gallery of Victoria Art School]] where she was a student of Bernard Hall and [[Frederick McCubbin]].<ref name=":0" />

In 1921, Perry was awarded the National Gallery of Victoria Travelling Scholarship and spent 4 years in London at the [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy]]. <ref>{{Cite web|title=Trove|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/233119102|access-date=2020-08-15|website=trove.nla.gov.au|language=en}}</ref>  In London she met and was influenced by [[Charles Sims (painter)|Charles Sims]], [[Gerald Kelly]] and Ernest Jackson who she credited with teaching her "all she knew about art". <ref name=":0" /> She also exhibited in Paris at the [[Salon (Paris)|Salon des Artistes Francais]]<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing – Presbyterian Ladies' College|url=https://www.plc.nsw.edu.au/microsites/adelaide-perry-gallery/adelaide-perry-prize-for-drawing|access-date=2020-08-15|website=www.plc.nsw.edu.au}}</ref>  Perry returned to Australia in 1925.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Perry|first=Adelaide|date=|title=Adelaide Perry|url=https://www.daao.org.au|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=15 August 2020|website=Design and Art Australia Online}}</ref>

Perry started using the recently invented [[linoleum]] to create relief prints in the mid-1920s. Wooden blocks were not easy to cut and required a printing press. She was enthusiastic about the medium and used it in her work and taught classes. She was attracted by the distinctive black lines and simplified forms which appealed to her interest in [[modernism]]. She used the method in her many depictions of the coastal environment and the harbour <ref name=":0" />  Along with Thea Proctor and Margaret Preston, she can be credited with promoting linocuts.

As early as 1930, Perry was commended as a 'clever artist' by [[The Bulletin (Australian periodical)|The Bulletin]] magazine for her portraits of poet [[Mary Gilmore]] and art critic and co-owner of the [[Macquarie Galleries]] Basil Burdett, which she had submitted to the annual [[Society of Artists (Australia)|Society of Artists]] exhibition. It was noted she was on the staff of the [[Julian Ashton Art School]] and was a member of the [[Society of Artists (Australia)|Society of Artists]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vol. 51 No. 2642 (1 Oct 1930)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-638019659|access-date=2020-08-15|website=Trove|language=en}}</ref>  

In the early 1930s, Perry established the Adelaide Perry School of Drawing and Painting at 12 Bridge Street, Sydney.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Third series, No. 50 (1 June 1933)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-351127359|access-date=2020-08-15|website=Trove|language=en}}</ref> She was teaching part-time at the Presbyterian Ladies College, Croydon after being recommended by Roy de Maitre<ref name=":1" /> and was exhibiting at the [[Macquarie Galleries]].

In 1934 Perry exhibited "portraits of quality" alongside leading women artists of the decade in an exhibition of the [[Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors|Melbourne Society of Women Painters]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vol. 55 No. 2855 (31 Oct 1934)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-611243477|access-date=2020-08-15|website=Trove|language=en}}</ref>  

In 1936 Perry acquired the lease to a penthouse in Lower Pitt Street, Sydney and stylishly converted the space into a teaching studio as well as her own accommodation.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vol. 57 No. 2943 (8 Jul 1936)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-562236419|access-date=2020-08-15|website=Trove|language=en}}</ref>  
 
Perry was a founding member of the Australian Academy of Art in 1937<ref>{{Cite web|title=Third series, No. 71 (May 1938)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-351472238|access-date=2020-08-15|website=Trove|language=en}}</ref> and in 1940 at their Third Annual Exhibition, her portrait of "''Diana''" was appreciated by the artist and sometime art critic [[Arthur Murch]] as having a "subtle quality".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vol. 21 No. 5 (1 May 1940)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-387284670|access-date=2020-08-15|website=Trove|language=en}}</ref> He also commented on the changing face of Australian art mentioning young artists who had returned from overseas such as [[Jean Bellette]], as well as established artists in Australia such as [[William Dargie|W A Dargie]], [[Margaret Preston]], [[Eric Wilson (artist)|Eric Wilson]], and [[Roy De Maistre|Roy de Maistre]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vol. 21 No. 5 (1 May 1940)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-387284670|access-date=2020-08-14|website=Trove|language=en}}</ref>

In the war years, Perry found opportunities to exhibit with a wide range of artists with established reputations at the [[Macquarie Galleries]] including [[Julian Ashton]], [[Donald Friend]], [[William Dobell]], [[Roland Wakelin]], [[Lloyd Rees]], [[Thea Proctor]], and [[Arthur Fleischmann|Arthur Fleischmann.]] <ref>{{Cite web|title=Vol. 61 No. 3173 (4 Dec 1940)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-597674482|access-date=2020-08-14|website=Trove|language=en}}</ref> In 1944, Perry she showed her drawings at the [[Macquarie Galleries]] alongside [[Thea Proctor]], [[Daryl Lindsay]], [[Arthur Murch]], James Cook and Douglas Dundas.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vol. 65 No. 3379 (15 Nov 1944)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-536043941|access-date=2020-08-14|website=Trove|language=en}}</ref>

After the war, Perry started teaching art full-time at [[Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney|Presbyterian Ladies College]], and stayed there until she retired in 1962.<ref name=":1" />

Perry continued to participate in the conservative Society of Artists annual exhibitions. In 1954, Elizabeth Young, a writer for the Adelaide Advertiser,made the observation that there was an "unusually comprehensive cross-section of art" and that "young artists" were exhibiting "boisterous canvases" influenced by expressionist and abstract painters of the European School. However, there were more established artists such as [[Arthur Murch]], Lloyd Rees, Margaret Preston, Roy Wakelin and Perry who "had come up with quiet, sober and considered work that still had punch in it".<ref>{{Cite news|date=1954-08-28|title=Cross-Section Of Art In Australia|pages=15|work=Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 – 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47592496|access-date=2020-08-15}}</ref>

In 1955 she again exhibited with the Society of Artists with [[John Passmore (artist)|John Passmore]], [[Nora Heysen|Nora Heyson]], and [[Lloyd Rees]] <ref>{{Cite web|title=Vol. 76 No. 3940 (17 Aug 1955)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-675239557|access-date=2020-08-14|website=Trove|language=en}}</ref>  From this time there is little evidence that Perry created much in the way of new work. However, she had made her mark as a printmaker and painter, and in future years her work would be included in a few important survey exhibitions.

In 1984, Perry's oil paintings were included in the exhibition ''Private Collection:The Post-Impressionist Mood in Australian Painting'' held at the Nolan Gallery, [[Lanyon Homestead|Lanyon]], ACT. <ref>{{Cite news|date=1984-02-15|title=ART A selection from ACT collections|pages=27|work=Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116390112|access-date=2020-08-15}}</ref>

In 1986, Perry's lino-cuts were included in the exhibition ''Australian Printmakers: 1773–1986'' at the National Gallery of Australia. <ref>{{Cite news|date=1986-03-17|title=ART A curious exhibition|pages=18|work=Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article118107426|access-date=2020-08-15}}</ref>

In a 1995 art review of the "extensive" and "comprehensive" exhibition of the works by Adelaide Perry and her students, ''Overlooked But Not Forgotten'', at the Drill Hall Gallery at the [[Australian National University]], [[Sasha Grishin]], of the [[The Canberra Times|Canberra Times]] stated that although Perry had never been "a major figure in the Australian art scene", it is possible Perry's career may have been affected by the Depression and held back by the need to have an income. Grishin does identify her early work, the simple relief prints, "as using the medium to its full potential" and they compared favourably to her contemporaries such as [[Margaret Preston]], [[Thea Proctor]], [[Ethel Spowers]] and [[Vera Blackburn]], the latter whom she taught at her Sydney art school.  Grishin sums up Perry as having had "a significant impact on the Sydney art scene".<ref>{{Cite news|date=1995-03-11|title=Early talent matures as a teacher not artist|pages=9|work=Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127517289|access-date=2020-08-15}}</ref>

== Recognition  ==
1995:  The retrospective exhibition ''Overlooked But Not Forgotten'', works by Adelaide Perry and her students, was held at the Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University.

2001:  Adelaide Perry Gallery established by [[Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney|Presbyterian Ladies College]], Croydon, NSW to "broaden students’ experience and knowledge of art, design and curatorial practice".

2006:  Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize was established. <ref>{{Cite web|title=Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing – Presbyterian Ladies' College|url=https://www.plc.nsw.edu.au/microsites/adelaide-perry-gallery/adelaide-perry-prize-for-drawing|access-date=2020-08-15|website=www.plc.nsw.edu.au}}</ref> 

== Further Reading ==
{{Citation|author1=Lumsden, Gill|title=Adelaide Perry|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/33244893|access-date=15 August 2020|author2=Perry, Adelaide, 1891–1973}}

== References ==
<references />

== External Links ==

* [http://mosmanartgallery.org.au/collection/adelaide-elizabeth-perry ''Taronga Wharf, 1939'', Mosman Art Gallery]
* [https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=perry-adelaide Art Gallery of NSW]
* [https://www.invaluable.com/artist/perry-adelaide-whtndw6e46/sold-at-auction-prices/ Invaluable.com]
* [https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/236.1975/ ''South Coast'', 1930, (linocut) Art Gallery of NSW]
* [http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/artists/1183/works/ Centre for Australian Art]
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