Early life
‘Woman in a shawl’, Art Gallery of NSW.
Florence Aline Rodway was born in Hobart on 11 November 1881. She was one of six children born to dentist and botanist Leonard Rodway.
Rodway often drew when she was young. She enrolled at the Hobart Technical College (now TasTAFE) in 1897 and studied painting, modelling, and life drawing.
After graduating from the Hobart Technical College in 1901, Rodway sent samples of her work to the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
They loved her work so much that they gave her a four-year scholarship. At the time, this was an amazing achievement for a female artist from Tasmania.
Sleep, a pastel of a sleeping girl that was awarded an Honorable Mention at the 1909 Society of Artists’ exhibition, was reproduced in the magazine on 1 April 1910, accompanying a review of the show that said:
“Miss Rodway has come with pastels into her kingdom, to which her familiar charcoal studies seem to-day but a highway. Unlike her charcoals, she does not over-work her pastels; and the several children and fair girls that she shows are handled with a most refreshing directness.”
She was forced to return to Australia after her scholarship ended because she could not afford to continue living in London.
Career
Florence Rodway established herself as an artist after settling in Sydney. She studied at the Julian Ashton Art School, and eventually mastered pastel work and miniatures.
In 1914 Rodway said, “I always wanted to establish a portrait connection … and after the Sydney Art Gallery purchased two of my portrait studies [1910], I seemed to go ahead better.”
She would draw up to twenty pastel portraits a year. Her subjects included writer Henry Lawson and explorer William Wentworth. Her work was regularly exhibited in Australia and overseas.
She also produced oil studies, black and white illustrations, and mural designs. Her illustrations were published in various publications, including the literature and poetry magazine The Lone Hand.
Though she returned to Hobart in 1932, Florence Rodway continued to display her work on the mainland.
Personal life
Rodway married a civil engineer named Walter Moore on 12 August 1920. They had a daughter together.
Death and legacy
Florence Rodway passed away on 23 January 1971, at the age of 89.
Her ability to reveal a sitter’s character was distinctive and her art ranged ‘from the depiction of the strong portrait to the delicate drawing of the sweetness of childhood’. She is well-known for her pastel work, which is currently included in national and state collections.
Florence’s ‘The interview’ (c.1920)
