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’.