Joyce May Abbott 1912-1990 was the daughter of Edgar Jospeh Abbott a waiter/clerk-steward and Gertude May nee Julius and grew up in the family residence 4 Cove street Watson’s Bay. She became a pupil of Fred Leist at East Sydney Technical College probably in the evenings, in the late 1920s and her interest in mural painting aligns with this influence. Abbott was active by 1932 when she exhibited but did not become a member at the Australian Watercolour Institute and had a work accepted in the Health Department Poster Competition in 1934.
Abbott became friends with the older established Sydney illustrator and children’s book author, Pixie O’Harris. The pair had enough work to have a joint exhibition at the Wynyard Book Club, Sydney, in 1937 which received several positive notices in the newspapers and was attended by notable figures including both the women’s teachers.
Joyce illustrated O’Harris’s Aboriginal theme book Goolara in 1943. Abbott contributed a picture story of her own on 'The adventures of Naroo and his playmate, Kawana’ to the 2 November issue of The New South Wales school magazine of literature for our boys and girls The story line makes for an interesting comparison with the award winning 1957 children’s photographic book by Axel Poignant Piccaninny walkabout:a story of two Aboriginal children. Abbott remained a contributor to the magazine until 1947.
Joyce Abbott was a finalist in the 1943 Wynne Prize and the 1944 and 1945 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Abbott illustrated other children’s books including Grandpuff and Leafy(1943)and Leafy’s Seventh Wave (1948)by Gladys Lister and had a few illustrations used in a 1953 leaflet issued by the Australian Museum, Sydney, on Australian Aborigines written by Beryl Graham and F.D.McCarthy.
Abbott’s own books are school readers published by Angus & Robertson,_Playabout: A Picture-story Reader _in 1955 and _Ullagulbra. A Picture-Story Reader_in 1959. Abbott’s illustrations and a portrait of Aboriginal children at auction, suggest contact with Aboriginal people but she is not known to have travelled outside Sydney and may have used photographs.
Abbott married in 1944 but continued work under her own name -although not it seems ever working full time or being listed as a professional artist-illustrator There are no known works from the 1960s on.
A scant few works in oil and on paper are listed at auction. An un-named portrait in oil by Pixie O’Harris sold at auction may be a portrait of Abbott from 1937 as both women were reported as including portraits of the other in their 1937 exhibition. Abbott has scant reference in literature on Children’s book illustration but deserves consideration as one of the illustrators of graphic stories about Aboriginal children.
- Writers:
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newtog
- Date written:
- 2019
- Last updated:
- 2019
