Kathleen O'Connor b. 14 September 1876

Also known as Kate O'Connor, Kathleen Letitia O'Connor
  • Artist (Painter)
A painter who spent much of her life in Paris, exhibiting regularly at the Salon d'Automne. She painted mainly still lifes and portraits but also intimate studies of people in the Luxembourg Gardens.

painter, was born on 14 September 1876 in Hokitika, New Zealand, daughter of Charles Yelverton O’Connor and Susan Letitia, née Ness. The family moved to Western Australia in 1891 where C.Y. O’Connor took up a post as government civil engineer. Kate studied at the Perth Technical School under J.W.E. Linton and, after receiving additional tuition and encouragement from Florence Fuller , went to England in 1906. After attending Hubert von Herkomer’s School at Bushey, Hertfordshire, she lived in Paris until 1909, then returned briefly to Perth.

The following year she was back in Paris and in 1911 was painting in Concarneau with a group of artists which included the New Zealander Frances Hodgkins and the Canadian Emily Carr. She was a regular exhibitor at the Salon d’Automne from 1911 to 1932. Her work from this period concentrates on small intimate studies of people in the Luxembourg Gardens.

During World War I, O’Connor stayed in London, then returned to Paris and in the early 1920s became involved in fashion and the decorative arts. During this decade she experimented with tempera in her paintings and received encouraging reviews in the French press. In late 1926 she revisited Australia and briefly worked for the Sydney department stores, Grace Brothers and David Jones, producing hand-painted plates, sun-shades and fabrics. She sailed for France after a solo exhibition in Perth in October 1927.

In the 1930s O’Connor worked mainly on still-life painting. She held her first solo exhibition in Paris in February 1937, at the Galerie J. Allard, then left for the comparative safety of England during World War II. In 1948 she again returned to Western Australia. Crates of her paintings and sketches were impounded at Fremantle, subject to 20% import tax. Despite protestations that she was an Australian citizen and therefore not liable, she was forced to destroy 150 works and pay duty on the remainder.

She continued to paint, mainly still lifes and portraits. However, she was not happy and longed to return to France, which she did in 1951. She held a solo exhibition at the Galerie Marseille, Paris, in June 1953. In 1955 she came back to Perth for the last time. She won the WA section of the Perth Prize for Contemporary Art in 1958. A 1965 solo exhibition at the Osborne Gallery in Adelaide and at the South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne, in 1966, resulted in some national prominence. In 1967 the WA Art Gallery organised a major retrospective of her work. She died in Perth on 24 August 1968, aged ninety-two. Her ashes were scattered at sea.

Writers:
Gooding, Janda
Date written:
1995
Last updated:
2011