Beaumaris seascape

Clarice Beckett
Beaumaris seascape c. 1925
oil on cardboard
National Gallery of Australia
Purchased 1971
Image courtesy of National Gallery of Australia

An intensified sense of place is striking in Beckett’s work—a quality that is not simply about locality but feeling.

As a long-term resident of bayside Melbourne, Beckett’s familiarity with locale sharpened her focus and informed her painting. The ‘beautiful cliffs of Beaumaris’, ‘the native untouched beauty of the foreshore’ (as described by Beckett in a letter to the Editor, The Argus, 7 June 1934), the suburb’s streets, residences, and gardens, were the inspiration for many of her works painted in various light conditions.

When asked about her interest in travelling abroad, as so many of her contemporaries did, Beckett responded: ‘Why would I wish to go somewhere else strange. I’ve only just got the hang of painting Beaumaris.’