painter, was born in Melbourne, daughter of the poet and playwright Rupert Atkinson and niece of the artist Helen Atkinson . She studied at George Bell 's Bourke Street School from 1934 until it closed in 1939:
I was only sixteen or seventeen and dreadfully self-conscious. My drawing, I rapidly realised, was appalling so I slogged away for about a year before touching painting.
... I missed an awful lot that went on, mainly because I found it impossible to work at the studio year in and year out. So I used to take two or three months each year off to re-charge as it were, mostly in Literature at a bookshop and library in Collins Street.
The great majority of Bell’s students were women (Yvonne was 'great chums’ with Frances Burke until Burke left to take up fabric design): but, Atkinson noted, 'never forget it was the boys in the back room who rated. And rightly.’ Yet although Bell was prejudiced in favour of the men, Atkinson was a favourite pupil. Exceptionally talented, she was also a striking woman with 'green eyes, red hair, creamy complexion, [and] a lovely personality’, recollected Joan Yonge, a fellow student, adding: 'She came in very elegantly – and always late. Bell would say indulgently, “You wait until the world’s warmed up before you step out don’t you?”’
Atkinson’s paintings of the late 1930s were mainly nudes ( Distorted Nude 1936-39), portraits ( To the Pure, All Things Are Pure n.d., Virgin and Cat 1938) and paintings of contemporary life ( The Tram Stop 1937), including a rather unflattering self portrait. Many have a similar subversive wit to The Life Class . However, when she left to be married in September 1939, Bell wiped his hands of her. After her marriage to Tony Daniell, she moved to Townsville (Qld) but later returned to Victoria, residing in Castlemaine. Many later works are of Australian bushranging or primitive rural life subjects. Later in her life she also held a number of solo exhibitions at the Avant Galleries, Melbourne. She also exhibited with the Victorian Arts Society and at the Art Gallery of WA. Paintings of 1974-76 are signed her 'Yvonne Daniell’. Her witty, all women, charcoal drawing The Cocktail Party n.d. was offered by Deutscher Menzies November 1998, lot.38 (ill.).
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
