Allen, Mary Cecil.

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Title

Allen, Mary Cecil.

Author

Butler, Roger.

Source

[Not applicable]

Publication date

2010

Type

Biography

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Mary Cecil Allen

Mary Cecil Allen was born in Melbourne on 2 September 1893 and studied at the National Gallery of Victoria School of Art between 1910 and 1912 and 1914 and 1916. In the intervening years she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.

In 1926 she left Australia to work firstly in France and later that year in the USA where she painted, and also produced a few lithographic prints. Most of Allen's time was spent in art education; she championed modern art and introduced Australian art abroad. Her working name in the USA was "Allen, Cecil".

During a visit to Australia in 1935-36 she exhibited paintings, pastels, drawings and lithographs at the Fine Art Society Gallery in Melbourne. In 1950 she settled in the art colony at Provincetown, Massachusetts where she continued to work until her death on 7 April 1962.

None of Allen's lithographs have been identified as yet but she is represented in the National Gallery of Australia collection by a woodcut printed in colour which is in the distinctive style of the Provincetown printmakers. The print was sent to her friend the Australian doctor and artist Clive Stephen in 1950.

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