Dora Meeson (1869-1955)

Dora Meeson was an Australian artist and an elected member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London, England.

She was a member of the British Artists' Suffrage League.

Although born in Melbourne, Dora Meeson moved with her family to London as a child, and commenced her art studies at the Slade School.

In 1895 she returned to the antipodes and spent two years at Melbourne's National Gallery School, where she met her future husband, George Coates, before returning again to Europe just as Coates won the Travelling Scholarship.

The couple studied together at the Académie Julian and exhibited in Paris before settling in London in 1900 and marrying three years later.

The Coateses were part of that substantial coterie of Australian painters living and working in London and Paris in the years immediately before the Great War, a group which included such artists as Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and A.H. Fullwood, Rupert Bunny, George Lambert, John Longstaff, Emanuel Phillips Fox and Ethel Carrick, Will Dyson, James Quinn and Thea Proctor.

While George's métier was careful, sober, tonally-constructed Roberts-Longstaff portraits, Dora was much more expansive in a Fox and Bunny way, readily admitting her enthusiasm for Monet's 'brilliant light and colour' and most often painting her own Thames River landscapes en plein air.

Dora Meeson è stata un'artista Australiana e membro della Royal Institute of Oil Painters di Londra, Inghilterra. Era membro della British Artists 'Suffrage League.

Sebbene sia nata a Melbourne, Dora Meeson si è trasferita con la sua famiglia a Londra da bambina e ha iniziato i suoi studi artistici alla Slade School.

Nel 1895 tornò agli antipodi e trascorse due anni alla National Gallery School di Melbourne, dove incontrò il suo futuro marito, George Coates, prima di tornare di nuovo in Europa proprio quando Coates vinse la borsa di studio in viaggio.

La coppia ha studiato insieme all'Académie Julian ed ha esposto a Parigi prima di stabilirsi a Londra nel 1900 e sposarsi tre anni dopo.

I Coateses facevano parte di quella cospicua cerchia di pittori australiani che vivevano e lavoravano a Londra e Parigi negli anni immediatamente precedenti la Grande Guerra, un gruppo che comprendeva artisti come Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts e AH Fullwood, Rupert Bunny, George Lambert, John Longstaff, Emanuel Phillips Fox ed Ethel Carrick, Will Dyson, James Quinn e Thea Proctor.

Mentre il mestiere di George era attenta, sobria, ritratti di Roberts-Longstaff costruiti in modo tonale, Dora era molto più espansiva in un modo Fox and Bunny, ammettendo prontamente il suo entusiasmo per la "brillante luce e colore" di Monet e molto spesso dipingendo i suoi paesaggi sul Tamigi en plein air.