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Folding screen


Folding screen

1896

Margaret Anderson Hope (1848–1934)

wood (unidentified); leatherette (constituents unidentified); paints (oils)

186.3 h x 202 w x 2 d cm (fully extended); 183 h x 50.5 w x 2 d cm (each panel)

Presented by MM Hope, 1985

P1985.106


Provenance

This screen was presented to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery by Marjorie May Hope in 1986. MM Hope was related to Margaret Anderson Hope through her father, Denis Hope (1890–1981), who was the son of Alfred Hope (1861–1950), a nephew of the artist.

History

Margaret Anderson Hope (1848–1934) was highly regarded as a painter of plants, particularly Tasmanian native flowers. This screen is without exposed structural elements or framing and provides a large, blank canvas for the artist’s work. It consists of four panels with arched heads. One side of each panel is completely covered with images of Tasmanian native plants realistically rendered against a generalised, but suggestive and atmospheric background. The plants depicted are:

1) Richea dracophylla (no generally accepted common name)

2) Anopterus glandulosus (native laurel)

3) Telopea truncata (Tasmanian waratah) and Olearia viscose (no generally accepted common name)

4) Eucalyptus globulus (Tasmanian blue gum) and Diplarrena moraea (white flag iris).

Description

Screen consisting of four hinged vertical panels with arched heads. One side of each panel has Tasmanian native flowering plants painted in oils on textured leatherette. The other side is covered with a plain red/brown twill weave cotton and the edges are finished with machine-made, patterned silk braid ribbon. On the painted side the designs run to the edges of the screen with each plant depicted growing from the lower left side of the picture plane. The plants depicted, from left to right, are:

1) Richea dracophylla (no generally accepted common name)

2) Anopterus glandulosus (native laurel)

3) Telopea truncata (Tasmanian waratah) and Olearia viscosa

4) Eucalyptus globulus (Tasmanian blue gum) and Diplarrena moraea (white flag iris).

Each panel has a generalised atmospheric background and a (discontinuous) suggestion of the ground provided by ferns and other plants in the lower part of the images. The panels are linked by two standard brass cabinet hinges and each has two short, turned and dark-stained feet.

Statement of Significance

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery seeks to build a comprehensive representation of studio crafts practice in Tasmania. Margaret Anderson Hope worked predominantly as a painter and this screen is indicative of the influential Arts and Crafts philosophy of uniting all arts and eliminating the distinction between ‘fine’ and ‘decorative’ art. The representation of Tasmanian native flowers is also typical of the movement—drawing upon the observation of proximate reality for decoration and motifs rather than idealised forms from mythology and tradition. The Arts and Crafts movement, combined with a growing Australian nationalism, led to increased aesthetic appreciation of the local environment and its flora.

Inscriptions

Signed and dated in red oil paint in the lower left corner of the first and third panels: ‘M Hope / 1894’.


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© 2009 Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
This page was last modified on : 31 August, 2010

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