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Margaret Fleming

Margaret Fleming is an Australian artist (1861 - 1935). She was the daughter of Allan Fleming and his wife Mary (nee Watson). She was crippled from youth, and spent most of her life in Nowra, NSW. http://www.daao.org.au/bio/margaret-fleming/biography/? She came to Sydney, and lived for a time in King Street, to enable her to attend classes at Julian Ashton"s School of Art. http://www.daao.org.au/bio/margaret-fleming/biography/? . Ashton painted her portrait. image at http://www.artrecord.com/index.cfm/artist/7039-ashton-julian-rossi/medium/1-paintings/?page=3 Though Fleming was mainly a still-life painter, she also painted portraits and genre studies. http://www.daao.org.au/bio/margaret-fleming/biography/?

Her still life “Study of Birds” was shown in the annual exhibition of the Art Society in Sydney in October 1894, and described by a reviewer as having “the neutral tints of the plumage delicately enforced in effective contrast”. Sydney Morning Herald 28 September 1894 p 3, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/28261535; The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser 6 October 1894 p 696, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/162837620 She was an early member of the Society of Artists when it broke away from the Art Society in 1895, an account of the foundation of the Society of Artists  is in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (NSW) 20 July 1920 page 3, accessible at  http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/138832481 and exhibited at its first exhibition at the Crystal Palace Rink in Sydney in September 1895. At that exhibition her still life “Cockatoo” reproduced at http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/569/ was bought by the Art Gallery of NSW for £7/7/-, Sydney Morning Herald 28 September 1895 p 8, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14018688 and was one of seven of the pictures that the Art Gallery bought from that exhibition that were reproduced in a newspaper at the time. The Sydney Mail and NSW Advertiser 12 October 1895,http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/162672492 "Cockatoo" was exhibited at the Exhibition of Australian Art held at the Grafton Gallery, London in 1898, Catalogue of the exhibition item 307 p 49, reproduced at http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/doview/nla.aus-vn504542-p.pdf and by the National Library of Australia in 1999. catalogue of the exhibition "Birds!", National Library of Australia 1999, p 9, accessible at https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Rd3OikSuEcAC&pg=PP8&lpg=PP8&dq=

An advertisement for the sale of the assets of a deceased estate in December 1904, which included a painting by Fleming, described her as an “eminent artist”, advertisement for sale of assets of the late Alexander Oliver MA, late President Land Appeal Court and Federal Capital Commissioner, Sydney Morning Herald 14 December 1904, p 15, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14657133 and in 1913 a journalistic survey of the contribution Australian women had made to the arts included her name amongst the women artists. “Australia’s Daughters”, The Catholic Press (Sydney) 6 November 1913 p 6, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/107333401

She died on 18 July 1935, at the Coogee home of her recently deceased sister, Mary McIlwraith. death notice of margaret Fleming Sydney Morning Herald 19 July 1935, at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/17197720. Death notice of Mary McIlwraith Sydney Morning Herald 28 May 1935 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/17155539 Fleming's obituary in The Shoalhaven News and South Coast Districts Advertiser  makes no mention of her activities as an artist. .nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/112230755