Constance Jenkins, painter and teacher, was born in Melbourne on 29 June 1883, youngest of the children of the civil engineer and architect John S. Jenkins (son of an English professor in the Scottish Elgin Academy) and Emma, née Wright, who particularly encouraged her daughter’s artistic interests.
Constance Jenkins studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School. She enrolled in the School of Design in 1901 and two years later was admitted to the School of Painting (1903-08). During her student years, Jenkins exhibited at the NGV Art School exhibitions and with the Victorian Artists’ Society. She also won several awards at the First Australian Exhibition of Women’s Work held in Melbourne in 1907.
In 1908 Jenkins became the first woman to win the NGV Travelling Scholarship, which supported two years of overseas studies. Jenkins travelled to Paris where she studied at the Académie Julian in 1909 and then completed further studies in London and Italy. She exhibited at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français, Paris (Old Salon) in 1910 and the Royal Academy in 1911. It is likely that 'My lady pincushion (daylight)’ was completed during Jenkins’ scholarship years abroad.
In 1912 Constance Jenkins returned to Melbourne where she held her first solo exhibition at the Athenaeum Hall. Amongst the ninety-six exhibited works were two versions of My lady pincushion: one by daylight and the other by candlelight. Later that year, Jenkins departed Melbourne for the United States where she married Spencer Macky, a fellow student from the NGV Art School. The Mackys settled in San Francisco where Jenkins taught at the San Francisco Institute of Fine Arts. She continued to exhibit and was a founding member of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists (1925). Constance Jenkins died in San Francisco in 1961.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
Sullivan, Lisa
The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2012
