page_title: Clarice Beckett
section_title: Work
hierarchical_section_title: Clarice Beckett / Work
caption_attribution_description: English: Silent Approach, oil on board, 48.0 h x 58.0 w cm.
context_page_description: Clarice Marjoribanks Beckett was an Australian artist and a key member of Australian tonalist movement. She is represented in the collections of Australia's major public galleries, including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of South Australia.
context_section_description: Beckett is recognised as one of Australia's most important modernist artists, though some have classified her as a 'daughter of Monet'. In his review of the first of two exhibitions held at the Rosalind Humphrey Gallery in 1971 and 1972, Patrick McCaughey described Beckett as a remarkable Modernist, because of the 'flatness of the surface in her painting'. Despite a talent for portraiture and a keen public appreciation for her still lifes, the subject matter favoured by her teacher Meldrum, Beckett preferred the solo, outdoor process of painting landscapes. She persistently and diligently painted sea and beachscapes, rural and suburban scenes, often enveloped in the atmospheric effects of early mornings or evening. Her subjects were often drawn from the Beaumaris area, where she lived for the latter part of her life. She was one of the first of her group to use a painting trolley, or mobile easel to make it easier to paint outdoors in different locations.
caption: Silent Approach, c. 1924, National Gallery of Australia
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