Australian Impressionist Louise (Louie) Blanche Riggall was born to Martha (née Gregory) and Edward Sheens Riggall (later Councillor for Maffra Shire), at Joyces Creek near Newstead, on 2 March 1868, one of eleven children including sisters Mary, Florence, Fanny, Lydia, three other sisters, and brothers William, Richard, Thomas and Samuel. In 1874 when she was aged six, her family relocated to “Glenfalloch” in the mountains near Glenmaggie.
She studied under Arthur Thomas Woodward at the Sale School of Mines in 1894, and at the School of Art and Design of the Bendigo School of Mines from 1895 in which year, at age 27, she received several awards in the ANA competition at the Bendigo Art Gallery in November; judge Bernard Hall, then curator of the National Gallery of Victoria gave her first prize, the Prescott Shield, for a landscape in oils, hers being a view of central Bendigo, and a first in crayon drawing, and third prize for a still life in oils. Her painting of an elderly lady seated at a table was considered best in the section for figure painting in oils but there were insufficient entries for an award to be given.
She left Sale for Paris in March 1897 after a farewell at Glenmaggie attended by Florence Fuller, and from 1897 to 1899, she studied in the junior division at the Académie Delécleuse in Montparnasse, Paris, incidentally attended also by Hilda Rix Nicholas, James Quinn and Agnes Goodsir. There she won a first for a painting in oils, first for a torso from life, and first mention also in three other different sections in competition with students of all nationalities. She had a work hung at the Old Salon, Paris in 1899, winning her two medals. Before leaving she helped Agnes Goodsir settle into student accommodation there. Scarlet fever sickened her during her last Parisian year, and still recovering, she was brought back to Australia by an uncle William, a solicitor, and her aunt. Returning to Victoria in November 1900 on the RMS India she opened a studio in Collins St, Melbourne, and began to exhibit her pieces at the Victorian Artists’ Society, her painting The Australian Wildflowers at the 1902 show being remarked in The Herald which also mentioned her Purity in the 1903 exhibition as “a fine decorative work, in which the artist shows a nice sense of color” while Adelaide’s The Critic commented that it was “good, painstaking, conscientious, refined work [which] made a good impression among the favourites of the show”
Juliet Peers notes that “Louie Riggall’s oeuvre ranged from freely painted plein air nationalist pieces to academic and late-colonial style work, small miniatures to life-sized pastel portraits, large scale oil to spontaneous watercolours. Her pastel portraits show a convincing grasp of this medium. Louie also delved into printmaking with experiments in monotypes, one dated 1901. ... Louie was equally versatile in her subjects, at ease with figures, flowers, fruit, landscape and urban scenes.”
Laura Olcelli notes that Riggall’s success with her art financed another trip to Europe at thirty-seven. “Diary of Italian Tour” is her unpublished travel diary, made over 21 February to 1 May 1905 of her trip to Italy via England, France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, with companions Catherine, Nancy and Helene. It contains drawings of people and postcards of art and architecture of France and Italy, Rome especially, is held by the State Library of Victoria. A stay in Capri was marred by her falling ill with a fever, but she recovered before they traveled to Florence, and then Venice which entranced her, but with she found ‘impossible to paint.’
After her return Riggall exhibited a pastel portrait Molly (her sister) at the Federal Exhibition in Adelaide in 1907, exhibited again at the Victorian Artists’ Society and at the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, which she joined in 1907.
Her father died on 14 January 1913 at his property Byron Lodge and Riggall put her art on hold to to volunteer during the First World War, at the onset of which she joined the Australian Red Cross as a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, the self-funded volunteer civilian nursing orderlies who and filled various supporting roles. Initially, since Australian VADs couldn’t travel abroad, she began her service at the Broadmeadows camp tending new recruits for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in Victoria. She expressed her motivation; “I could not stop in Australia while the need for women at the front is so urgent. I am not a trained nurse, but I am willing and ready to serve in any capacity – in a kitchen or peeling potatoes, so long as I am helping the boys.”
Her fluency in French, achieved during her art training in Paris, was considered an asset, an in 1915 she sailed on the RMS Moldavia to Heliopolis, Egypt, alongside two other VADs, and assigned work at the 1st Australian General Hospital for sick and wounded evacuated from the Dardanelles. She was respected as wholeheartedly dedicated to her duties and adored by the soldiers she assisted. In March 1916, orders came for the 1st Australian General Hospital to close and relocate to Rouen. Hurriedly packed, the hospital’s personnel and equipment boarded H.M. Hospital Ship Salta for Marseilles, and the company arrived in Rouen on April 13th, 1916. Due to her language skills Riggall was entrusted with organising supplies for the entire hospital of over 1,000 beds for British and Commonwealth soldiers and later, for members of the AEF. Recognising her work ethic, the Red Cross extended her responsibilities, placing her in charge of supervising 12 hospitals in the region, for which she arranged entertainment for convalescents and even to purchase gifts for the soldiers under her care to send to their relatives. She died shortly after the shelling of the 8th General Hospital where she was nursing, barely more than two months before peace was declared. She was buried in St. Sever cemetery, Rouen, and in 1935 a memorial plaque in her honour was unveiled at the Johnson Memorial Hall in Maffra, Victoria. She bequeathed £500 (equal to $57,580.00 in 2022) to wounded or incapacitated returned soldiers.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
Note: Heritage biography.
James McArdle
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2023
