miniature painter, sketcher, art teacher and poet, was born on 24 December 1814 at Epping Forest, Hertfordshire, daughter of the Irish-born John Reilly, later a saddler and harness-maker in Sydney and a leading member of the committee which established the Sydney Mechanics Institute and School of Arts. The family came to Sydney in the Arundel in 1832. Early the following year Miss Reilly advertised that she would teach 'the various branches of Drawing, Miniature Painting, Mezzotinto &c.’ from her father’s premises in George Street, Sydney. The success or otherwise of this venture was short-lived. The following year she married the widower Henry Badgery of Sutton Forest; they had nine sons. Mary Ann Badgery died on 29 September 1898.
At the second exhibition of the Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Australia at Sydney in 1849, Mrs Badgery showed two works, Flowers in Vase and Portrait of Queen Anne . Her undated (c.1851?) sepia wash View of Vaucluse House and Surroundings is in the Mitchell Library, while her undated painting of her home, Vine Lodge at Sutton Forest , and a watercolour portrait of her father remain in private hands. She was exhibiting with the Royal Art Society in Sydney as late as 1886.
- Writers:
- Fahy, Kevin
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
