Jane Sutherland was an Australian landscape painter pioneer of the plein-air movement in Australia, she was also notable for her advocacy to advance the professional standing of women artists.

Sutherland was born in New York to Scottish parents; the family migrated to Sydney in 1864 and moved to Melbourne in 1870. Her father George taught drawing for the Department of Education and exhibited his own work through the Victorian Academy of Arts. Unlike her brothers Alexander

Alexander Sutherland

Alexander Sutherland was a Scottish-Australian educator, writer and philosopher.-Early life and education:Sutherland was born at Glasgow, both parents were Scottish, his father, George Sutherland, a carver of ship's figureheads, married Jane Smith, a woman of character and education...

, George

George Sutherland (author)

George Sutherland , a writer, was born in Scotland, the brother of Alexander Sutherland.He was taken to Australia in 1864 and graduated from the University of Melbourne...

, and William

William Sutherland (physicist)

William Sutherland was a Scottish-born Australian theoretical physicist, physical chemist and writer for The Age newspaper.-Early life and education:...

, Jane went on to pursue an artistic career.

Jane studied at the National Gallery School of Design, where she was taught to paint by notable Australian artists Frederick McCubbin

Frederick McCubbin

Frederick McCubbin was an Australian painter who was prominent in the Heidelberg School, one of the more important periods in Australia's visual arts history....

, Eugene von Guerard

Eugene von Guerard

Johann Joseph Eugene von GuérardHis first name is variously spelled "Eugen", "Eugene", "Eugène", one source mentions "Jean" ; his surname is spelled "Guerard" or "Guérard". The most frequent combination is that used by the National Gallery of Australia: "Eugene von Guérard"...

 and George Folingsby. From 1878 she exhibited at the Victorian Academy of Arts, then with the Australian Artists' Association, and with the Victorian Artists' Society (from 1888) until 1911. From 1888 she shared a studio with Clara Southern

Clara Southern

Clara Southern was an Australian artist associated with the Heidelberg School, also known as Australian Impressionism....

 and Jane Price. In 1884 she became one of the first women members of the Buonarotti Society, and in 1900 she and May Vale were the first women elected as Councillors of the Victorian Artists' Society.

Sutherland was the leading female artist in the group of Melbourne painters who worked outside the studio; she took plein-air sketching trips to the outlying rural districts of Alphington

Alphington, Victoria

Alphington is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 7 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Darebin and Yarra. At the 2006 Census, Alphington had a population of 4,483...

, Templestowe

Templestowe, Victoria

"Templestowe" redirects here. For the Victorian Legislative Council Province, please see Templestowe Province.Templestowe is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 17 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Manningham...

 and Box Hill

Box Hill artists' camp

The Box Hill artists’ camp was a site in Box Hill, Victoria, Australia favoured for plein air painting in the late 1880s by a group of artists who were part of a movement that later became known as the Heidelberg School....

 with her male contemporaries of the Heidelberg School

Heidelberg School

The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. The movement has latterly been described as Australian Impressionism....

. About 1904 Sutherland suffered a stroke. She relied on her brother William for mobility and after his death in 1911 her artistic career ceased.

External links

• Obstruction, Box Hill at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery