painter, Melbourne, painted The Fortune Teller , an oil that won her the National Gallery Travelling Scholarship in 1926. It was sold at Christie’s Melbourne auction part 1, 26 November 1996, lot151 ill.) Guest had worked as a maid in the house of the vendor’s grandfather, where it was found in a shed along with machine parts (est. $12-15,000).
Memory of a colour pattern, the painting which Guest presented to the National Gallery of Victoria after completing her scholarship, was the first in a contentious series of contemporary scholarship-related paintings either rejected or withdrawn from exhibition by the National Gallery of Victoria in the early 1930s. Other artists affected by this policy included Constance Stokes and Sam Atyeo. Guest’s painting was hung for only a short period because it 'showed modern influences’, according to the Melbourne Herald (17 December 1932, page 4).
In the late 1930s Guest wrote a children’s book about international travel which was accepted by the New York publisher Henry Holt. However, the rapidly changing international boundaries during the lead up to the Second World War rendered Guest’s illustrated maps outdated before the book could go to press.
After the War, Guest patented a design for a perambulator, bed or like covering.
A portrait of Nancy Guest by Sybil Craig is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
Eric Riddler
- Date written:
- 1999
- Last updated:
- 2019
