Vida Lahey - Beach Umbrellas

Vida Lahey (1882-1968) - Beach Umbrellas (1933)
Australia $1.20 Stamp Issued 1995
Queensland Art Gallery

Vida Lahey was Queensland born, although she studied in London before WWI and lived in Paris afterwards, training at Colarossi's Academy.  As a modernist artist in Australia at the time, she was instrumental in promoting the arts on Queensland and supporting the Queensland Art Gallery.  This is one of many colourful paintings that depicts Australian beach and seaside life that is typical of Queensland and northern New South Wales - there is plenty of colour and light.

Lahey was also trained by Frederick McCubbin.  Lahey's painting "Fruit and Flowers" was used for another stamp in 2011.

Artist Unknown - Medicine Story

Medicine Story (1972) - Artist Unknown
Indigenous Art of the Desert
Australia 90c Stamp Issued 1988

This is one of four stamps that were issued to show desert art by indigenous artists in the Western Desert region of the Northern Territory in Australia.  The Papunya Tula art movement gathered pace in the 1970s, and there are regular exhibits worldwide, as this form of art has gained traction with international art buyers.

Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri - Ancestor Dreaming

Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri (1929-1984) - Ancestor Dreaming (1977)
Australia $1 Stamp Issued 1988
Art of the Desert Series

This artist was one of the key figures from the Western Desert art scene that developed in the 1970s in outback Northern Territory, near Haast's Bluff.  Tjapaltjarri first worked as a stockman before moving with his wife to Papunya, where he was involved in the establishment of the artists' settlement.  The artist had earlier experience with watercolours, which makes some of his work quite different to his contemporaries.

Charles Conder - All on a Summer's Day

Charles Conder (1868-1909) - All on a Summer's Day (1888)
Australia 41c Stamp Issued 1989
Art Gallery of South Australia

Charles Conder lived in Australia for only seven years, but he was a key figure from the Heidelberg school of painting, which was responsible for the divergence of "western" Australian art in a modern sense.  This painting was completed at the time when Conder was living in Melbourne and is typical of the light filled paintings of the Australian landscape.  A woman reads a book on the beach, while another artist is also shown on a cliff top with his easel.  Conder left Australia in 1890 to go back to England, but his Australian work remains critically acclaimed.  "Holiday at Mentone" has also been used on postage stamps.

Hans Heysen - A Cottage Bunch

Hans Heysen - A Cottage Bunch (1930)
Australia 60c Stamp Issued 2011
Held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Roy de Maistre - Still Life, Zannias

Roy de Maistre - Still Life, Zannias (1930)
Australia 60c Stamp Issued 2011
Held at the National Gallery of Victoria

This is an early piece of work by one of Australia's most successful overseas artists, Roy de Maistre.  Although he was successful within Australia, De Maistre would later go on to live in London, where some of his work would eventually be purchased by the Tate Gallery and he would be commissioned to paint the Stations of the Cross for Westminster Cathedral.  

He has an interest in the harmonisation of music and colour throughout his life.  The artists was originally studying music, but he suffered badly from tuberculosis at many stages of his life, eventually causing him to concentrate of painting.

Vida Lahey - Fruit and Flowers

Vida Lahey (1882-1968) - Fruit and Flowers (1924)
Australia 60c Stamp Issued 2011
Held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Vida Lahey was one of Australia's most successful female artists.  Born in Brisbane, she went on to study in Melbourne at the National Gallery School before heading off to Europe in the late 1910s.  This was probably where she developed an interest in still life art, as she travelled to the Netherlands at this time.

Lahey returned to her home town of Brisbane at a time when Brisbane was not known for its interest in cultural or artistic pursuits, remaining there until she passed away in 1968.

Nora Heysen - A Bunch of Flowers

Nora Heysen (1911-2003) - A Bunch of Flowers (1930)
Australia 60c Stamp Issued 2011
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Nora Heysen was the fourth child of Hans Heysen, who was one of Australia's most famous war artists in World War I.  Nora also became an artist, studying in Adelaide, before going on to become the first woman to win the Archibald Prize in 1938.  She also followed her father as a war artist, completing 170 works of art in WWII.


This is one of her still life works, issued as part of a series of still life works of flowers by Australia Post in 2011.

Arnold Shore - Camellias

Arnold Stone (1897-1963) - Camellias (1937)
Australia 60c Stamp Issued
Held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

This is the first of five 2011 stamps that have been issued by Australia Post, showing five works of still life art from the National Gallery of Victoria.  They have been gathered from the heyday of still life art that was taking place in the 1920s and 1930s in Australia.   

Arnold Stone was born in Melbourne and he was trained as an artists by Frederick McCubbin during the early stages of his career.  They parted ways, and eventually he went on to run a school in Melbourne with Max Meldrum, were they taught student modernist principles in painting.

Brian Dunlop - Queen Elizabeth II

Brian Dunlop (1938-2009) - Royal Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1984)
Australia 60c Stamp Issued 2011
Painting Held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Brian Dunlop was a prolific and successful Australian still life and portrait painter of the modern age.  This painting was commissioned in 1984 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the state of Victoria in Australia, and it was donated to the National Gallery of Victoria in the same year.


Australia continues to issue Queen's Birthday stamps around June each year, as a long weekend holiday is still observed, even though it is not really the Queen's Birthday!  

Dame Nellie Melba Portrait - Rupert Bunny

Portrait of Dame Nellie Melba - Rupert Bunny (1902)
Australia 60c Stamp Issued 2011
Painting held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 

This stamp has been issued to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Dame Nellie Melba, the famous opera singer from the late 19th century.  Melba had a long and successful career, and a very interesting personal life as she mixed with dukes and famous people throughout Europe.  To this day, her name is remembered through a common dessert - Peach Melba - in addition to having a Canberra suburb named after her.  


Melba's portrait was completed by one of Australia's most popular artists at the height of both their careers. She was also the first Australian woman to be depicted on an Australian stamp back in 1961.

Dame Nellie Melba - 1961 5d Stamp Australia

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II - Rolf Harris (2006)

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II - Rolf Harris (2006)
Australia $2.25 Stamp Issued 2011

The Queen's Birthday stamp issue for 2011 depicts one of the most popular and well known portraits of the Queen by an Australian artist.  Rolf Harris began his career in television in Australia, but he has lived the majority of his life in the UK.  During the height of his career in the 1970s, his programs centred around paintings which he completed live on TV - in addition to singing many songs that are now painful to hear.

This portrait was commissioned for the Queen's  80th birthday - it is often well regarded as it shows her friendly side in the prime of her life.

Celia Rosser - Golden Wattle

Celia Rosser - Golden Wattle (1989)
Australia 41c Stamp issued 1990
Illustration

The golden wattle is a common sight throughout many regions of Australia, particularly when it is flowering along the roadsides and railways of New South Wales and Victoria.  Although wattles are also found in Africa and parts of North America, in 1891 there was a push to adopt a flower as a national emblem, even before Australia became a federation in 1901.  In 1988 Acacia pyncantha was finally adopted as the national flower.


Celia Rosser is a well known botanical artist, particularly known for her studies of banksias.  She has a gallery in Victoria. This stamp is one of many botanical illustrations that are traditionally depicted on Australian stamps, given the uniqueness of Australian flora.

Cecil Beaton - Queen Elizabeth II

Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) - The Queen at Buckingham Palace (1953) 

Australia $2.45 Stamp Issued 2006

Held by the V&A Museum London

This photograph was taken at the time of the Annigoni portrait of the queen in 1956, by one of Britain's most famous photographes in the 20th century.  The image was used for the 2006 Queens Birthday stamp issue in 2006 to celebrate her 80th Birthday.  The queen is wearing the Order of the Garter.

Naata Nungurrayi - Untitled

Naata Nungurrayi (1932 - )

Australia $1.65 stamp issued 2003

This artist lives in an incredibly remote area of Australia, being the Pollock Hills in Western Australia.  She did not begin painting until 1996, but Nungurrayi's works are highly sought after.  This is one of many stamps that have been issued depicting indigenous art in Australia.  


This stamp is an "International Post" stamp that can be used for postage of items to overseas only - as GST is not charged on overseas despatches, but GST is charged on local postage within Australia, different stamps now need to be used for local vs overseas items.

Pietro Annigoni - Queen Elizabeth II (1956)

Pietro Annigoni (1910-1988) - Portrait Queen Elizabeth II (1956)

Australia 50c Stamp Issued 2006

Australia still continues to issue stamps to commemorate the Queen's Birthday each year, in addition to observing a long weekend to mark the occasion.  Strangely enough, this is done in June, even though it is not the Queens Birthday - any excuse for a public holiday!!


Annigoni's painting of the queen was depicting in the 2006 Queen's Birthday issue, marking the 50th Anniversary of the completion of this regal portrait.

Giovanni Toscani - Adoration of the Magi - Part 3 Detail

Australia 45c Stamp Issued 1994

Painting Held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

This is one of many works of Toscani that were produced on wooden panels in the "cassone" style.  The panels were originally decorated to be included in wooden chests or boes for newly married couples.  

Three stamps were sourced from detailed reliefs of Tosacani's painting which is held at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

Toscani - Adoration of the Magi - Part 2

Giovanni Toscani - Adoration of the Magi

Australia $1 Stamp Issued 1994 Christmas

Painting Held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia

This stamp is one of three stamps that was produced from the "Adoration of the Magi" painting that is held at the National Gallery of Victoria.  Another stamp has been previously posted as part of this series on this blog.


This painting was produced sometime between 1420 and 1430.  The painting is one of many artworks that have been purchased through the Felton Request, which was established in 1904 when Alfred Felton died, leaving a fortune of 190,000 pounds.  Felton stipulated that half of the interest earned on the bequest would be used to purchase artworks for the NGV - the gallery has managed to purchase numerous works that are valued over a billion dollars now, as many purchases were made prior to the large increase in art work prices in the 1950s.   

Prospero Fantana - Holy Family with St Jerome

Prospero Fontana - Holy Family with St Jerome, a female martyr and the infant St John the Baptist (1552)

Australia 28c Stamp issued 1980

Held in the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia

This impressive painting is thought to have been completed by Fontana while employed by Pope Julius III in the 1550s.  The artist had a long career in his native Bologna, Genoa, Florence and Rome.  The painting's figures are closely embraced to each other and interacting in a very personal manner.

St Jerome is also depicted in this painting, probably because he was responsible for the establishment of a hospice in Bethlehem in the 4th Century, in order to welcome pilgrams to the holy land.  He got up to quite a bit during his life, being fully devoted to the church.  He is also known for translating the bible into Latin.

Justin O'Brien - Virgin Enthroned

Justin O'Brien (1917-1996) - Virgin Enthroned (1951)

Australia 15c Stamp issued 1980

Painting Held at the Art Gallery of NSW

Justin O'Brien was born in south western Sydney in an Irish Catholic family, thus explaining the religious nature of art that was depicted in this stamp for Christmas 1980.  His art was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2011.  The artist was a prolific producer of art during his career, in addition to spending time as a teacher in Sydney prior to heading off to Rome in the latter period of his life.