painter, illustrator and businesswoman, was born in London, daughter of the journalist Saunders F. Nicholls. In 1884 her family moved to Sydney, where she worked on the Sydney Morning Herald . Later she was Sydney manager of the Argus (Melbourne) and manager of the Sydney Mail . She studied at the Sydney Art School under Julian Ashton and became an illustrator on the Sydney Mail and Lone Hand . The issue of 1 November 1909, p.80, includes her picture story, 'The Eternal Child’, illustrated with drawings of a little girl pulling the cat’s tail, punishing her doll by putting her in a corner and in the kitchen with cook (JK copy 1909-10 vol.6 – with captions). She also illustrated Winifred Scott’s story, 'A Watch in the Night’, about a toddler with nurses and a very silly mother (1 November 1909, 58-64), and Roderic Quinn’s 'The Age of Chivalry’ with children under tree, a girl, a boy and a boat (1 April 1910, pp. 653-57). SEE file for others.
In 1905 Nicholls exhibited two black and white works with Royal Art Society. She transferred her allegiance to the Society of Artists in 1907. That year she exhibited in the preliminary First Australian Exhibition of Women’s Work at Sydney, then in the main exhibition at Melbourne. A foundation member of the NSW Society of Women Painters in 1910, she was still exhibiting with it in 1933. She specialised in child studies described by a contemporary as 'better than Kate Greenaway’. One postcard after her work is known, published in the NSW Bookstall Company’s 'Art Series’.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
