Treasures & curios

This small oil painting by Clarice Beckett is a delightful example of the unique style forged by a long-neglected Victorian artist. Painted on a small board in a palette of muted pink, grey and cream, it is one of a number of works Beckett is known to have painted of structures such as roads and railway bridges crossing the Yarra River. Beckett conveys the hum of a modern city but from a distant point of stillness that's as melancholic as it is serene.

Clarice Beckett (1887–1935) was born in Casterton, Victoria. She trained at the National Gallery School and was later influenced by the tonal relations theories of Max Meldrum. In 1920 her family moved to Beaumaris and Clarice became a full-time carer for her ailing parents. Still, she remained prolific and painted daily, in the morning and late afternoon, often outdoors.

From 1922, Beckett held ten exhibitions of her work but for various reasons – her gender, her association with Max Meldrum's style and the quietness of her work – she was largely ignored. She sold very little, although she did find favour among her fellow artists and some modernist critics. Though prolific, few of her works have survived as over 1200 were damaged or destroyed due to poor storage after her death.

In the 1970s, exhibitions of Beckett's work at the Rosalind Humphries Galleries in Melbourne established her as one of the leading female artists of her time. These exhibitions, and a major retrospective exhibition in 1999, Clarice Beckett: politically incorrect, led to a new appreciation of her unique artistic vision.

The painting was purchased by the State Library in 2006 with generous assistance from the Library Foundation.