Cumbrae Stewart (1883-1960) was born Janet Agnes Stewart on the 23rd December 1883 at the family home of “Montrose” in Brighton, Victoria. She was the youngest of ten living children born to Francis Edward Stewart (1833 – 1904) and Agnes Catherine Park (1843-1927).
She enrolled at the National Gallery Art School with friends Jessie C A Traill and Norah Gurdon in 1901, completing the course in 1907. After losing the Travelling Scholarship to Constance Jenkins in 1908, Cumbrae Stewart’s work lost focus. It wasn’t until she picked up a box of pastels that she discovered her superpower. Today she is best known for her nudes, though she only worked in that genre for 10 years of a lifelong career. She travelled to England in 1922 to avoid the expectation to help care for an aging mother. She was related by marriage to Lady Darnely, who brought all of London society to her first solo exhibition in London in 1923. Despite living from sale to sale, Cumbrae Stewart cashed in her return ticket to Australia and took a studio among a group of tight-knit expats artists in Chelsea. She shared a studio with Hylda Atkins, a twenty-eight-year-old artist and a spoilt member of the aristocracy.  During these early years, Cumbrae Stewart’s work became looser, bolder, and more assured. Hylda posed for a number of paintings for Cumbrae Stewart, the first of which were modest and typical of the tradition, though a later series divided her audience when they were shown in London in 1925. They depicted Atkins staring down her nose at the viewer with not a hint of modesty. One of these, The Haughty Princess, replicates Manet’s Olympia.
While travelling through Europe, Cumbrae Stewart met Argemone ffarington Bellairs in Cassis. She went by the name “Bill” and was tall with blonde hair cut short to her scalp. She was also a member of the aristocracy but made a living driving wealthy English tourists around the area in her taxi. Bill had spent the war years volunteering as a nurse in Rouen and Greece and, according to an ex-lover, had the ability to convert even a heterosexual woman lesbian. Janet fell in love. She gave up her studio and eventually arrived in Laigueglia in the Italian Riviera. Janet remained the breadwinner throughout their lives, but she never again painted another adult nude.
Janet returned to Australia before the Second World War where she remained with Bill until her death in 1960. She continued to paint in pastels up to the end. For a more detailed account of Cumbrae Stewart’s biography download the free catalogue below.