Historical information

Isabel HUNTINGTON (1905 - 04 December 1971)

Isabel McCausland was educated at Ballarat and married Robert Keith Huntington in 1931, and which time Isabel was living in the Melbourne suburb of Preston.

Isabel Huntington was a painter, craft officer and craft worker. She studied at Ballarat High School, Ballarat Technical Art School (a division of the School of Mines) and RMIT, and was a member of the Victorian Artists' Society and the Contemporary Art Society. In 1945 she was appointed Director of Handcrafts for the Victorian Division of the Red Cross Society. Isabel Huntington had previously held the position of Supervisor of Handcrafts at Heidelberg Military Hospital for three and a half years. She was a member or the Arts and Crafts Society.

Isabel Huntington had five 'one-man" shows, three in Melbourne, one in Ballarat and one in Hamilton, Victoria. The critics of the day described Isobel Huntington's work as Post Impressionist and Expressionist. 'Her enjoyment of the use of colour and her sense of vitality is obvious in her most original conception of the relationship of art to flowers.'

Ursula Hoff judged the 1965 Albury awards for watercolour, and religious paintings in oils, awarding the prize to Isabel Huntington. In the same year Isabel Huntington travelled to Europe. In Ballarat's Crouch Prize Isabel Huntington was commended three times. After returning from overseas she taught at Rosanna High School, Victoria.

Isabel Huntington lived at Montmorency, Victoria, and was there at the time of her death. Her studio was located at 10 Nokes Court, Montmorency, 3094.

This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007 in 1971.

Physical description

Framed painting of a sunflower.

The signature at the lower right has been oversigned in white 'Huntington 1962". A note on the back of the work suggests it was more like to have been created in 1956, and it was first purchased between 1956 and 1958.

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Inscriptions & markings

A note on the back says
"Sunflower 1962 Oil/Pastel
Insurance Isobel Huntington Gouache 1956
Black Box. Huntingdon (sic) Isobel. Acquired between 1956 - 1958"