Florence Fuller Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Florence Fuller Art Value Price Guide

Dec. 03, 2024
Florence Ada Fuller (1867-1946) Australian Landscape
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Florence Ada Fuller (1867-1946) Australian Landscape signed lower right: 'F A Fuller' oil on canvas 36.5 x 59.0cm (14 3/8 x 23 1/4in).
Bonhams
Aug. 21, 2024
FLORENCE FULLER 1867-1946 Portrait of a Child 1898 oil on canvas 46.5 x 40.5 cm frame: original, maker unknown
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
FLORENCE FULLER 1867-1946 Portrait of a Child 1898 oil on canvas signed and dated ‘FA Fuller. / 1898' lower right 46.5 x 40.5 cm frame: original, maker unknown PROVENANCE Florence Fuller, London Jean Isobel Calder (née Fuller), United Kingdom, by descent from the above Private Collection, Wales, by descent from the above
Smith & Singer
Sep. 18, 2023
FLORENCE FULLER (1867-1946) The Dolls' Tea Party 1890 oil on canvas 50.5 x 40.5cm
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
FLORENCE FULLER (1867-1946) The Dolls' Tea Party 1890 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right: F A Fuller/ 1890 50.5 x 40.5cm PROVENANCE: Ms. Hilda Ninna Pickering Redmond (née Ball) Mrs. I. C. Everist Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne LITERATURE: Lane, T., Serle, J., Australians at Home: A Documentary History of Australian Domestic Interiors From 1788 to 1914, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990, pl. 265 OTHER NOTES: Florence Fuller is today considered to be one of Australia's most important female artists of the late 19th century. By 1914, her works were featured in four public galleries in Australia and South Africa - a record for an Australian female painter of the time. Despite Fuller enjoying considerable success in her early life, she remained for most of her career somewhat overlooked. Florence Fuller attended the National Gallery School in Melbourne and took lessons from Jane Sutherland while working as a governess. Her uncle, fellow artist Robert Dowling, greatly encouraged her artistic pursuits and she was asked to complete several of his unfinished works after his sudden passing. This practice led to numerous commissions from wealthy patrons and encouraged Fuller's professional progression. In fact, aged in her early twenties, she was able to cease working as a governess and devote herself to her art full-time, practicing from her studio in her parents' home in Pine Grove, Malvern. In the late 1880s and early 90s, Fuller produced some of her most notable works including Weary 1888 (Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales) and won an award from the Victorian Artists Society for the best portrait by an artist aged under 25. Shortly after in 1890, Fuller painted this portrait of little Hilda Ball playing 'mother' at a dolls' tea party. Variations of this subject were popular with Victorian and Edwardian artists of the time - young females in quiet contemplation, placed within the domestic interior somewhat isolated from the outside world. The subject rarely catches the gaze of the viewer, instead focused on their own activity or task. This is similarly seen in Fuller's "Inseparables" c.1900 (The Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia), in which a young girl remains absorbed in her book, reading intently beside a burning fire. Whilst one could argue the similarities between this subject and Hilda, both confined within the home and focused on their own activities, one could also note that young Hilda is seen to be playing a game considered very 'comfortable' for young ladies of the day. She is caring for her dolls and serving tea, displaying both maternal and marital tendencies. By contrast, the older subject in "Inseparables" is reading a book. Whilst we don't know the content of the book, it could be considered subversive by Fuller to portray a young lady satiating her desire for knowledge - perhaps a sign of the changing times at the fin-de-siècle. Although Hilda was only about 5 years old at the time her portrait was painted, she too became a woman of great accomplishments. A science graduate, Hilda was one of the first generation of university-educated women to make a career of teaching, and between 1918 and 1928 she introduced the post-First World War generation of girls who attended Tintern Church of England Girls' Grammar School to the notion of fitting themselves for a future career(1) - a truly modern approach to girls' schooling at the time. The Balls lived in various houses in Kew in the 1890s. The interior tells us they lived a comfortable life, with signs of the Aesthetic Movement in the dado, fans, arrangement of bulrushes and papier-mâché fire screen(2) . This painting is recorded within a photograph of Florence sitting in her Pine Grove studio, published in the "Illustrated Sydney News" on 1 August 1891. It has been in the collection of Hilda's family since leaving the artist's studio. Olivia Fuller Head of Art (1) Lane, T., Serle, J., Australians at Home: A Documentary History of Australian Domestic Interiors From 1788 to 1914, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990 (2) Ibid.
Leonard Joel
Dec. 01, 2022
FLORENCE FULLER, PORTRAIT OF A CHILD, C.1889
Est: $30,000 - $40,000
FLORENCE FULLER (1867 - 1946) PORTRAIT OF A CHILD, c.1889 oil on canvas 61.0 x 50.0 cm bears inscription on frame verso: Portrait of a Child Florence A. Fuller PROVENANCE Robert Law, Melbourne, acquired in the 1890s Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED Winter Exhibition, Victorian Artists’ Society, Grosvenor Galleries, Melbourne, 4 May 1889, cat. 88 LITERATURE ‘Winter Exhibition of the Victorian Artists’ Society’, The Argus, Melbourne, 15 May 1889, p. 9 ESSAY Florence Fuller was acclaimed as an art prodigy in mid to late 1880s Melbourne. She came to attention initially for completing unfinished portrait commissions after the premature death of her uncle, major late colonial artist, Robert Dowling, and opened a professional art studio in Melbourne before she was twenty. Between 1886 and 1892, her figure work and genre subjects were greatly admired, although reviewers equally credited her for plein air landscapes, still lifes, flowers and formal portraits. Such early recognition was formalised when she was awarded a prize for the best portrait in oils by an artist under 25 at the Victorian Artists Society exhibition in 1888.1 Notably Arthur Streeton likewise received a prize for his oil paintings and landscapes in the same competition. Fuller was uniquely mobile and cosmopolitan for a late Victorian to Edwardian Australian woman artist. By 1900, she had worked in Melbourne, South Africa, Paris, London before settling in Perth in 1904 – only to leave for India in 1908, where she lived and painted at Adyar, the headquarters of the Theosophical Society. From 1905 onward this organisation became a dominant pivot in her professional and personal life. After returning to London in time to march with her colleague Annie Besant in suffragette protests in 1911, she finally settled in Australia by 1919. EXHIBITED alongside such celebrated works as Frederick McCubbin’s Down in his Luck, 1889 (Art Gallery of Western Australia); Arthur Streeton’s Golden Summer, Eaglemont, 1889 and Conder’s Hot Wind, 1889 (both in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia), the present Portrait of a Child, c.1889 was one of five works exhibited by Fuller in the 1889 Victorian Artists Society exhibition at the Grosvenor Galleries. A hitherto unseen painting from her Melbourne period, Portrait of a Child is a continuation of Fuller's engagement with the lives of poor and marginal children in settler Australia that has expanded current understanding of late 19th century Australian art as seen in Weary, 1888 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) and Paper Boy, 1888 (National Gallery of Victoria). Possibly this work is Desolate, a now unknown work, that was mentioned in the press in 1891 as both being a companion to Weary and, also having found a buyer in Melbourne. Both works were typical of the subjects of care and concern that ‘touch... an appreciative chord in the hearts and tastes of the fine art patrons of Australia.’2 In 1888 Fuller painted a much-admired genre scene Gently reproachful, a working-class girl mending her brother's clothes, set in the interior of a poor room.3 There is a clear synergy to Portrait of a Child which is likewise set in an empty and bare room, and features the young girl engaged in domestic labour – in this case churning butter. Fuller's strong social conscience comes to the fore as the viewer's sympathy is directed to young girl hard at work, with nothing to distract or comfort her, seated in a somewhat claustrophobic, dreary and impoverished kitchen that lacks any of the happy bric-a-brac, silverware, candlesticks, crockery of McCubbin’s Kitchen Interior, Old King Street Bakery, 1884 (Art Gallery of South Australia). Alternatively, could the Portrait of a Child have been intended as a genre scene referring to popular narratives of Cinderella or Victor Hugo’s Cosette, sharing the profound existential misery of each character? Fuller’s picture again makes viewers rethink and extend what is known and expected from Australian artists in the 1880s and 90s – and equally, changes the parameters about what is known and expected from Australian women in the plein air circle. The Leader, Melbourne, 19 May 1888, p. 29 Illustrated Sydney News, Sydney, 9 May 1891, p. 11‘Victorian Artists Society: The Spring Exhibition’, The Age, Melbourne, 16 November 1888, p. 8 DR JULIETTE PEERS
Deutscher and Hackett
Oct. 04, 2022
FLORENCE ADA FULLER (1867-1946) Still Life oil on canvas
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
FLORENCE ADA FULLER (1867-1946) Still Life oil on canvas signed lower right: F. A. Fuller 44.5 x 60cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne Thence by descent
Leonard Joel
Aug. 09, 2022
Attributed to Florence Ada Fuller c1867-1946
Est: -
Attributed to Florence Ada Fuller c1867-1946 Portrait of Deborah Vernon Hackett and her two Daughters, Verna and Oil on canvas, laid down onto board. Patricia. C. 1912. 89 x 68cm Provenance: Private collection Perth.
McKenzies Auctioneers
Aug. 24, 2021
Florence Ada Fuller (1867-1946) Mother and Child
Est: $30,000 - $50,000
Florence Ada Fuller (1867-1946) Mother and Child signed lower right: 'FA Fuller' oil on canvas 43.0 x 61.0cm (16 15/16 x 24in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
Mar. 19, 2020
Florence Ada Fuller (1867–1946) The road to Simonstown from Muizenberg with Cecil Rhodes’s cottage in the foreground
Est: £8,000 - £10,000
Florence Ada Fuller (1867–1946) The road to Simonstown from Muizenberg with Cecil Rhodes’s cottage in the foreground signed 'F A Fuller' (lower right) oil on canvas unframed 22 x 29in. (55.9 x 73.7cm.) Please note this lot is the property of a private individual. Provenance Private Collection, U.S.A.
Christie's
Oct. 09, 2019
FLORENCE ADA FULLER (1867-1946) Portrait of a Boy 1888 oil on canvas
Est: $9,000 - $12,000
FLORENCE ADA FULLER (1867-1946) Portrait of a Boy 1888 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right: F A Fuller / 1888 inscribed verso with 'Page Boy' or 'Paper Boy' (partially illegible) label partially attached verso with 'Exhibition Building' inscription 59 x 45cm PROVENANCE: Gifted by the artist c.1920 Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne OTHER NOTES: At the first exhibition of the Victorian Artists' Society (VAS) in 1889 Florence Fuller won the prize for the best portrait painted by an artist under 25. In 2013, the then Head of Australian Art for the National Gallery of Australia, Dr Ann Gray, described Fuller as "an important Australian woman artist and arguably Western Australia'a most significant artist from the Federation period".
Leonard Joel
Mar. 28, 2019
FLORENCE FULLER (1867-1946), Untitled (possibly Black Rock)
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
FLORENCE FULLER (1867-1946), Untitled (possibly Black Rock) oil on canvas 40.0 x 61.0 cm signed lower right: F A Fuller Private collection, Melbourne
Menzies
Nov. 23, 2016
FLORENCE ADA FULLER - GIRL WITH DOLL - Oil on canvas on board
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
FLORENCE ADA FULLER (1867-1946) GIRL WITH DOLL Signed and dated 1890 lower right Oil on canvas on board 33 x 22.5cm $2,000/3,000
GFL Fine Art
Feb. 14, 2016
FLORENCE ADA FULLER (Australia, 1867-1940) - Oval Portrait of a Smiling Girl in Her Easter Bonnet, pastel on grey paper, signed lower center, in what may be the original gilt molded frame, under glass, OS: 20" x 17", ...
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
FLORENCE ADA FULLER (Australia, 1867-1940) - Oval Portrait of a Smiling Girl in Her Easter Bonnet, pastel on grey paper, signed lower center, in what may be the original gilt molded frame, under glass, OS: 20" x 17", SS: 16 1/2" x 13 1/2". Some lifting of pastel to glass, scuffs to frame.
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
Jun. 28, 2015
Attrib FULLER, Florence (c.1867-1946) Steamships.
Est: $50 - $100
Attrib FULLER, Florence (c.1867-1946) Steamships. Pen & Ink 9x17cm
Davidson Auctions
Apr. 28, 2015
FLORENCE FULLER 1867-1946 Weary 1888 oil on canvas
Est: $150,000 - $200,000
FLORENCE FULLER 1867-1946 Weary 1888 oil on canvas signed and dated 'F Fuller / 1888-' lower right 91.8 x 70.8 cm PROVENANCE Mr Hamilton Ker, Melbourne, acquired by December 1890 Private Collection, Melbourne Private Collection, Melbourne, by descent EXHIBITED Exhibition of Works of Victorian Artists, and a Loan Collection of Pictures, Exhibition Building, Melbourne, 20 December 1890, no. 242 Private View, Melbourne, March 1891 Completing the Picture: Women Artists and the Heidelberg Era, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne, 3 March - 26 April 1992, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, 15 May - 28 June 1992, Castlemaine Art Gallery, Castlemaine, 13 July - 16 August 1992, Benalla Art Gallery, Benalla, 28 August - 27 September 1992, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 2-25 October 1992, Carrick Hill Gallery, Adelaide, 5 November - 6 December 1992, no. 23, illustrated 'Through Women's Eyes': An exhibition of works by eight prominent women artists who attended PLC Melbourne, between 1880 and 1946 and who made a significant contribution to the development of art in Australia, Glen Eira City Art Gallery, Melbourne, 14 February - 18 March 2001 LITERATURE 'Chance Chatter', Fitzroy City Press, Melbourne, 9 January 1891, p. 2 Table Talk, Melbourne, 6 March 1891, p. 5 M. Hirst Browne, 'Some Australian Women: Part III. Four Australian Artists', Illustrated Sydney News, Sydney, 9 May 1891, p. 11 Victoria Hammond and Juliet Peers, Completing the Picture: Women Artists and the Heidelberg Era, Artmoves, Melbourne, 1992, pp. 44, 45 (illustrated), 81
Smith & Singer
Mar. 24, 2015
Florence Fuller 1867 - 1946 Amy, The artists sister Watercolour Signed lower right 14.5 x 11.5cm (ov
Est: $900 - $1,800
Florence Fuller 1867 - 1946 Amy, The artists sister Watercolour Signed lower right 14.5 x 11.5cm (ovular)
McKenzies Auctioneers