Isabel Agnes McDonald b. 1871

Also known as Mrs C. H. Foott
  • Artist ,
  • Artist (Painter)
It is believed Isabel McDonald studied under both Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts, powerhouses of Australian romanticism. Roberts was certainly known to her though, even if not as a teacher - he painted her portrait in 1895. After her marriage in 1901, Isabel ceased to paint, but she continued her craftwork, exhibiting a bookplate, carved box and copper jug in the 1907 Women's Work Exhibition.
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painter and craftworker, was born in Castlemaine, Victoria, eldest of the five children of George Thomas McDonald, a surveyor, and Amelia Margaret, née Mitchell. She moved to Queensland in childhood when her father took up a property, Cluden, outside Gladstone. Educated at home, she was quite intimidated by the sophistication of her four younger cousins (the daughters of Edward Mitchell), but her aunt Letita was a painter and a possible role model.

Before attending the National Gallery School, Melbourne, in 1888-89, where she studied under Frederick McCubbin, Isabel exhibited drawings at the 1887 Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association (QNAIA) Exhibition in Brisbane. In 1892 she was a student of Godfrey Rivers at the Brisbane Technical College; she also attended Miss Baily’s embroidery classes. She travelled between Brisbane and Sydney and Melbourne quite frequently, re-enrolling at the National Gallery School in 1895. She is also thought to have taken lessons from Tom Roberts and, indeed, was painted by him in 1895: Profile Portrait of a Young Girl (NGV). She exhibited oil paintings with the Queensland Art Society in 1892-1901; in 1898 she showed a carved screen and chair as well.

At Brisbane in 1901 Isabel McDonald married Cecil Henry Foott (1876-1942), an army officer who retired with the rank of brigadier general. They had one daughter, Celia Mary Lumsden (b.1902), and two sons (b.1904 and 1908). Her photograph with her two eldest children was taken by the professional Brisbane photographer Ada Driver (1868-1954), known for employing largely women staff in her Queen Street studio (and playing the violin to them during the lunch breaks).

Isabel’s painting career seems to have ceased with her marriage but craftwork did not suffer the same strictures. She included a bookplate, carved box and copper jug in the 1907 Women’s Work Exhibition together with a painting, Golden August , executed eight years earlier. At the 1908 QNAIA Exhibition she was awarded a first prize for a silky-oak sideboard carved in early Jacobean style.

The birth of her third child probably put paid to Isabel’s craft activities too. She travelled to England with her husband in 1912-19 and apparently had a busy public life. Nothing more is known of her until July 1926 (just before her death) when she became an executive member of the Red Cross in Brisbane.

Writers:
Cooke, Glenn R.
Date written:
1995
Last updated:
2011

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