Helen Lempriere

Helen Dora Lempriere (12 December 1907 – 5 November 1991) was an Australian painter, sculptor and printmaker. She is particularly known for incorporating pictorial motifs, beliefs, and Aboriginal myths into her artworks.

Biography
Born in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern on 12 December 1907, she was the only child of Charles Algernon Lempriere (brother of businessman Geoffrey Lemprière) and Dora Elizabeth Octavia, née Mitchell (daughter of builder David Mitchell and younger sister of singer Nellie Melba). Helen Lempriere grew up in a very privileged environment, which provided her with financial stability throughout her life.

Additionally, her family was very supportive of the arts: the Lempriere family, especially Dora Lempriere, took on a patron role with local artists, particularly through commissioning portraits.

She was educated at Toorak Ladies' College (1925) and then received tuition in art first from A. D. Colquhoun and later from Justus Jorgensen, two painters belonging to the Australian tonalism movement. Subsequently, Helen Lempriere helped Jorgensen to establish Montsalvat, an artists' colony near Melbourne dedicated to artistic freedom. She moved there in 1935 and stayed for ten years, until 1945 when she married Keith Wood.

Conception totenism, a 1956 painting employing Aboriginal themes, is held in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Other similar paintings and also prints donated by her husband after her death are in the collection of National Gallery of Australia and in the Grainger Museum at the University of Melbourne.