Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/emily-susan-paterson

Birth Place

Ryde, NSW, Australia

Biography

painter and craftworker, was born on 2 June 1841, the first child of Emily Mary Darvall (1817-1909) and Robert Johnston Barton (1809-1863) who came to Sydney in January 1840 as fellow passengers aboard the Alfred and had married on 30 July that year. In partnership with Emily’s uncle Frederick Darvall and another passenger, Joseph Docker, Robert had bought the stock and licence area of Boree Byrang, a property near Molong (NSW) just beyond the official limits of settlement. Emily Mary had come down to her parents’ home, Deniston at Ryde, for her confinement and to be with her seriously ill mother, who died just three weeks before, as Emily put it, her 'sweet little child of affliction came into this sad world’. Emily Susan was a pretty child with 'white skin, red cheeks, and golden hair’, 'but also very passionate’. Her mother wrote that at the age of eight 'her chief charm [was] her lively intelligent countenance & gentle unaffected manner’. She grew up at Boree Nyrang, educated by her mother who was an intelligent and well-educated woman, an accomplished writer of prose and verse. Although her mother was modest about her own drawing skills, she would have been able to foster her daughter’s talent. Emily’s aunt and godmother Eliza Kater , who lived nearby, was an accomplished artist, while her Uncle Frederick had had drawing lessons and did some sketching. Family visits to Sydney were rare. When Emily Susan was only five her father suffered a compound fracture of the leg when his gig overturned and was severely crippled for the rest of his life. By the time she was 15 she was helping her mother with a household that included five younger brothers and three sisters. At the age of 19 she was married at Boree Nyrang to John Paterson who, with his brother Andrew, had a property not far away at Buckinbah and who in 1858 had been elected MLA for Lachlan and the Lower Darling. She had the first of her four children at Boree, but the others were all born at Illalong, a property the brothers took up near Yass. John Paterson died suddenly in August 1871, leaving Emily Susan a widow at 30. Family letters indicate she was greatly distressed and took more than a year to recover her health. She moved to Sydney to live with her widowed mother at Rockend Cottage, Gladesville, while Andrew Bogle Paterson, who had married Emily’s sister Rose, took over the management of Illalong. (Their eldest son was the poet, Andrew Barton ('Banjo’) Paterson.) 'E. Paterson of Yass’ had exhibited watercolours of Australian birds and flowers as an amateur at the 1870 Sydney Intercolonial Exhibition, including 'Silver Eye’ on Wild Fig for sale at 3 guineas. After moving to Gladesville, she showed her paintings with the NSW Academy of Art in 1872-74 and with the Agricultural Society of NSW in 1872-73. All the work of this 'talented and painstaking amateur’ was highly praised, her Australian Flowers, Trees, Butterflies, and Fruit , shown in 1872, being considered to be 'of very great merit’ by the Sydney Mail critic. Her flowers from Haselden, near Bathurst, were said to have 'elicited universal praise’, while other paintings of Australian flowers and birds shown by Mrs Paterson of Illalong in the open section of the exhibition were admired for their beauty and variety. She exhibited Azaleas in 1873 and paintings of Australian Birds (4 guineas) and Australian Flowers (3 guineas) in the open section of the Academy of Art’s exhibition that year and. 'some excellent water-colour drawings of the flora of Australia’ at a conversazione held by the Academy in October 1874. At the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879 Mrs Paterson, 'amateur of Gladesville’, showed a screen, medals and watercolours of Australian flowers and butterflies; her Australian Orchids was commended by the judges. She was awarded a silver medal at the 1888 Women’s Industries Exhibition for a painted screen entered in the amateur section. Emily Paterson took increasing responsibility for the management of the busy household at Rockend and remained there with her eldest son for some five years after her mother died in 1909. By 1915 she had moved to Drummoyne. She died there at her home, Nyanza, on 29 March 1917. Writers: Long, Jeremy Date written: 1995 Last updated: 1992

Born

b. 2 June 1841

Summary

An accomplished painter and craftworker, Emily Paterson's watercolours of native Australian birds and flowers were exhibited extensively with the NSW Academy of Art. Paterson, the aunt of poet A.B 'Banjo' Paterson, was raised in central western NSW before relocating to Sydney.

Gender

Female

Died

29-Mar-17

Age at death

76