painter and metal worker, was born Sarah Martha McCausland in Victoria to parents of Irish extraction. In about 1900 she married Samuel Furphy, son of the writer Joseph Furphy, at Shepparton. In 1902 they moved to WA to set up a Furphy foundry. They were joined in 1905 by her parents-in-law, Joseph and Leonie Furphy.
Strong-willed Mattie, who did not get on with her mother-in-law, spent most of her time in 1905-10 at the Perth Technical Art School, where she enrolled in freehand, cast and model drawing and undertook classes in repoussé work in metal. For a tiny, corsetted Edwardian belle this was some considerable physical feat. According to Joseph Furphy she was there five days a week, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. She was an outstanding student, winning scholarships which paid for her fees and being mentioned with Flora Le Cornu ( Landells ) in annual reports as energetic and persevering students who stimulated the others.
When the student work was shown at the Chamber of Manufactures’ exhibition in 1906 the applied arts, including repoussé, were singled out for praise. By this time Furphy was engaged in making an overmantel, door panels, finger plates, mirror and sconces for her home on the corner of Clement and Marmion Streets, Swanbourne. As one of the outstanding students, her work was included in the School’s exhibit for the 1907 Women’s Work Exhibition in Perth which was sent on to the national exhibition in Melbourne as a non-competitive entry, a reduced selection then being forwarded to the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition in London, where it won a Grand Prix and a Diploma of Honour. It is not known what work of Furphy’s was exhibited, and none of her paintings or drawings are recorded.
Mattie Furphy died on 25 July 1948. Her metalwork is preserved in Tom Collins House at Swanbourne.
- Writers:
- Erickson, Dorothy
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
