Design and Art Australia Online

Painter and designer, was born at Tabulam Station on the Clarence River (NSW), daughter of Major C.H.E. Chauvel, sister of General Sir Harry Chauvel (1865-1945) and aunt of film-maker Charles Chauvel. She married her cousin Arthur Chauvel. Lillian studied art in Queensland under various teachers and produced oil portraits, landscapes and still life paintings of roses, the last being considered especially fine. Travelling to Paris, she studied in the studios of Colarossi, Delacluce [sic], Simon and Blanche, and with Tudor Hart [presumably in London]. Becoming a member of the Felix Art Club, she was included in an exhibition at the Dore Gallery in Bond Street, London, alongside Colehurst, Stockdale, Patterson 'and other great artists’ [sic]. {Tenterfield and District Historical Society pamphlet}

Chauvel exhibited oil and watercolour paintings in Queensland National Association [QNA] and Queensland Art Society [QAS] exhibitions at Brisbane (see also Julie K. Brown & M. Maynard, Fine Art Exhibitions in Brisbane 1884-1916 , St Lucia (Qld), 1980).

Exhibited Queensland National Association in 1885: Oil Colours (Copies), Colonial Production – no.1380 Lilian Chauvel 'Woodcock’; Oil or Water Colours Painting on Terra Cotta or Earthenware – no.1432 Lilian Chauvel, 'Marine Subject on Shells’; no.1433 Lilian Chauvel, 'Portrait’.

Exhibited QAS 1894 – Oil Paintings – no.15 Miss L. Chauvel 'And mellow grows the changeful west,/ In misty curtains furled.’

Exhibited QAS 1895: Oil Paintings – no.3 Miss L. Chauvel, A Few Specimens £2.10; no.26 Miss L. Chauvel, 'Clear Shade of amethust and blue/ Crept o’er the waters calm and deep’.

Exhibited QAS 1896: Oil Paintings – no.45 Lilian Chauvel, Strathellbess Roses £3.10; no.55 Lilian Chauvel, New South Wales Flannel Flowers £1.1; no.65 Lilian Chauvel, Sweet Sunset £1.10; no.92 Lilian Chauvel Wyangerie, Richmond River £2.10.

Queensland International Exhibition 1897: QAS section – no.5 Miss L. Chauvel 'A Smart Shower’ £1.1; no.8 Miss L. Chauvel 'Plumbago’ £1.1; no.18 Miss L. Chauvel, 'Violets’ £2.2; no.42 Miss L. Chauvel 'Manly by Moonlight’ £1.1.

Exhibited QAS 1898: no.36 Lillian Chauvel, Waves £1.1; no.39 Lillian Chauvel A Panel Cabinet £5.5; no.48 Lillian Chauvel, Sydney from Mosman’s £1.1; no.83 Lillian Chauvel, Roses £10.10.

Exhibited QAS 1899 – no.5 Miss L. Chauvel, Mt Lindesay from Telemon Station £32,15; no.119 Miss L. Chauvel, Wattle £2.2; no.132 Miss L. Chauvel, Botanic Gardens, Brisbane £2.2.

Exhibited QAS 1900 – Oil Paintings – no.10 Miss Lilian Chauvel, Nasturtiums; no.16 Roses £15.15; no.23 Waves £2.2; no.49 Sunset’s Kiss £105; Water Colours – no.62 Camp Sketch at Meeandah £5.5; no.68 Study in Sunlight £1.1; no.78 Cornflowers £1.1; no.84 Study; Black & White – no.94 An Old Hand £1.1; no.96 Design for Poster.

Exhibited Society of Artists 1901.

Exhibited QAS 1902 – Oil Colours – no.10 The Reaper and Binder’s Path 1 gn; no.12 'Each morn, a thousand roses brings, you say:/ Yes! but where leaves the rose of yesterday… 10gns; no.40 Stacking Wheat on the Downs 1gn; no.73 Sunny Southport 1½gns; Screen – Water Colour no.141 The Reader (Pastel) 3gns.

Exhibited QAS 1903: Oil Colours – no.91 Sunset, Breakfast Creek 3gns; no.92 Old Boat Sheds, Breakfast Creek 3gns; no.93 Portrait Study £26.5; no.94 Chrysanthemums 8gns; no.95 Roses 5gns; no.96 Telegraph! Observer! 5gns.

Exhibited QAS 1904 – Oil Colours – no.71 Chrysanthemums 4gns; no.81 Sydney, from Lavender Bay 1½gns; no.86 Sketch, Waikato, N.Z. 3gns; no.90 Roses 8gns; no.113 A Reach of the Brisbane River 10gns; no.121 Fortune’s Yellow 10gns; no.123 Portrait Study 25gns; no.126 The Waikato, New Zealand 3gns; no.132 North Head, Sydney 1½ gns; no.144 Drying Sales after a Fog, Elizabeth Bay, Sydney.

Exhibited QAS 1905: Oil Colours – no.32 'A Study’ 15gns.

Exhibited QAS 1906: Water Colours and Black & White – no.128 Sketch; no.131 Sketch.

Exhibited QAS 1907: Oil Colours – no.2 Roses (Madam Eugen Resnal) 2 gns; no.6 Roses (Maman Cochets and some others) 7gns; no.16 Under the Viaduct, Dinan 1 gn; no.18 Poplars, Samois 1 gn; no.20 A Wet Washing Day, Samois 2 gn; no.61 Concerning 'Marie Van Houte’ and a Blue Bowl 5 gns; no.68 Notre Dame, Paris 1 gn; Water Colours and Black & White – no.91 Sketches at Southport 2 gns; no.102 In a Sunny Garden 2 gns; no.122 In the Woods at St Cloud 1 gn.

Exhibited QAS 1909 – Oil Paintings – Lillian Chauvel – no.26 Our Billy is Just Boiling 2 gns; no.46 The Charm of Grey, Domain, Sydney 2 gns; Water Colour – no.117 Roses; no.158 A Mountain Garden 1½ gns; no.175 The Harbour in Grey Mood 2 gns; no.176 Near Watson’s Bay, Sydney 3 gns; no.187 Niphetos Blooms 8 gns; no.192 But the Toiler calls it Home 2 gns; no.205 An Opal set in a Southern Sea 3 gns; no.223 Leafy Leamington 2 gns.

In 1910 Lilian Chauvel was a foundation member and Hon. Sec. of the NSW Society of Women Painters in Sydney, where she now lived. She had helped found the Society of Women Painters with Aline Cusack , according to a Tenterfield and District Historical Society leaflet on her career, which also notes that she 'discovered and developed the art of “panchrocis”, a delicate technique of paintings on silks and satins, of which she made lamp shades, trays, tables, handbags, fans, etc.’. During the War she worked with Madame Peliere, a leading French frock designer, designing buttons in Panchrocis for her gowns. The proceeds – like those from her other art works – were donated to the Red Cross. She also is believed to have drawn fashion illustrations and painted lampshades and cushions for a Sydney department store.

Included in the Sydney Art School Retrospective 1933 ( Cattle Markets, Dinan , watercolour).

Lilian Chauvel died on 24 July 1953. She bequeathed £1000 to Tenterfield Council to erect a building to house her gift of some 38 of her paintings, to be known as the 'General Sir Harry Chauvel Gallery’ in memory of her brother. (Objects associated with him and with J.F. Thomas, who defended 'Breaker’ Morant in his court martial during the Boer War, are now also included in the building at the back of the museum.)

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007