watercolourist and sketcher, was born in England in the early 1800s, daughter of Charles Woodcock. In 1836 she became the second wife of Francis Russell Nixon ; they had eight children. Her husband was appointed first bishop of Tasmania and the couple arrived at Hobart Town on 18 July 1843 with their children and servants. Mrs Nixon sketched virtually everywhere she went, using her sketches as part of her prolific correspondence with her family and friends in England. She was a fine draughtsperson but underrated her own work, being always eager to defer to the bishop’s superior artistic talents. After a trip from home late in 1844 she wrote to her family: 'I have been very diligent in sketching for you, but I must wait to send you the result of my poor efforts to illustrate my tour till the bishop has seen and corrected the same’.
She often sent home copies she had made of her husband’s drawings rather than her own originals. For instance, she sent copies of the bishop’s views of the Derwent River (Tasmania) and of the approach to Cape Town made on the voyage out in 1843, although when the Cape was sighted she noted, 'the bishop and I and Mr. Godfrey [q.v.] sketched most vigorously till about one’. Since Frederick then fell and sprained his wrist, subsequent views were by her alone: 'The Bishop and I were quite delighted with the scenery, and it was a great mortification to us both that he was not able to sketch’. Her own sketches made when approaching Hobart Town were sent home to her father in a letter of 18 July 1843, to give 'some faint idea of the beauty and grandeur of the coast. No 1 is Bruny Island with the Friar Rocks at the extreme point; and No 2 is our first view of Mount Wellington’.
A student of the picturesque (like the bishop), Nixon did not always find the Tasmanian landscape to her taste, although at times she imagined that it resembled Italy, which she loved. Nevertheless, the vast majority of her Australian works are views, many unsigned and most undated. On a trip made up country without her husband in October-November 1844, she drew numerous scenes and passed discriminating comments on the local vegetation. The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery holds a number of these landscape sketches, including two pencil drawings of Entally , a pencil and wash sketch Near Entally , and a pencil drawing, Ben Lomond and Valley of the Esk . Most are stylistically indistinguishable from her husband’s work but an occasional example hints at a distinctive artistic personality, including an attributed watercolour and ink view dated December 1847 showing Bishop Nixon’s short-lived school, Mayfield Farm, on part of the Bishopsbourne endowment, with charmingly bonneted little orphan girls in the foreground (TMAG).
The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery holds Nixon’s pencil sketch of the Archer property Woolmers, dated 22 December 1847, and a view of South Esk. Another watercolour is found in the album of her friend Johannah Crear (NLA). It is also extremely likely that she is the mysterious A.M . who signed several watercolours of Norfolk Island and Port Arthur and made copies of Bishop Nixon’s views of the same places (DL) as well as filling a sketchbook with rough sketches of Norfolk Island (ML). Although Anna Maria normally used her full initials 'A.M.N’., Bishop Nixon referred to her as 'A.M.’.
Like other women artists, Nixon documented her domestic life. Drawings sent home to her family included a plan of their first residence in Davey Street, Hobart Town ('next door to Mr Bicheno’s’ [q.v.]), enclosed with a letter dated 29 September 1843: 'not very correct, I fear, as to the proportions, but perhaps the Bishop will send you a better one day’. A view of the one-roomed cottage at the bottom of their garden for their carpenter and odd-job man, Bailey, was enclosed with a letter dated 1 October 1843: 'I have made you a little sketch of this from our sitting-room window, though it can convey no idea to you of the beauty of the scene’.
Her most original and unusual work is The Drawing Room with Organ (1845, TMAG), a small pencil sketch highlighted with white which provides a rare and minutely-detailed view of a domestic interior. It has the added virtue of being accompanied by her plan and a description of each item of furniture: ’1. Organ (still without a case ) ... 13. Very pretty Huon pine bookcase – Bailey’s best job … 14. St. Sebastian [by Guido Reni, the Nixons’ most prized painting] ... 15. W.H.'s sofa table covered with the blue cloth given me in 1836 by Honoria – on this is my Indian desk & here is my Account drawer & here I write in the morning … 26. A round Table, at wh. I am now writing Good night. 11 o’clock p.m. Jan. 2. 45’. The Nixons’ art collection was described in a letter of 12 February 1845.
At first Nixon endured rather than enjoyed her Australian exile. There was 'the bitter sorrow’ of parting from her family and the death of her stepdaughter Fanny (Frances Maria) on the voyage out. Her letters tell of her feelings of cultural isolation: 'No one here seems to care a straw for the arts, or even for reading, with the exception of the Macleans, where one’s eyes and memory are always refreshed by views of Italy, etc., and new books.’ The long separations from her husband while he travelled around his extensive diocese were a cause of loneliness for her as well as worry on her husband’s behalf: 'I cannot bear that my poor husband should be deprived of the consolation he derives from his domestic ties.’ As one who felt so much empathy for her husband, she was also severely affected by the political and ecclesiastical disputes in which he became involved.
Even so, as a family friend wrote, 'Mrs Nixon works as hard as [the Bishop] and makes an excellent Bishop’s Lady’. As well as acting as her husband’s amanuensis, she taught Sunday School classes and played the organ in St David’s Cathedral, the latter being 'a great delight’ to her. She learnt to enjoy the Tasmanian landscape and made many friends and established numerous ties with the colony before returning to England in 1862. Because of her husband’s failing health, the Nixons moved to Vignolo near Stresa, Lake Maggiore, Italy, in 1866, but it was Anna Maria who died there on 26 November 1868. She was buried in the British Cemetery at Stresa.
- Writers:
- Brown, Tony
Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
