LAHEY, FRANCES VIDA (1882-1968), painter, was born on 26 August 1882 at Pimpama,
Queensland, daughter of David Lahey, Irish-born farmer and timber-miller, and his
wife, Jane Jemima, née Walmsley. Educated at Goytelea School, Southport, she
learned painting from Godfrey Rivers at Brisbane Technical College, then studied
at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, in 1905-06 and in 1909 under Bernard
Hall and Frederick McCubbin. In 1910 she taught privately in Brisbane and
consolidated an official association with the (Royal) Queensland Art Society begun
in 1908.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
Vida Lahey began her art studies in Brisbane around 1903, before training at the National Gallery School, Victoria (1905-1906, 1909); she lived in London from 1915, moving to Paris after the war, where she studied at Colarossi's Academy. She exhibited regularly in Brisbane and Sydney during the 1930s and 1940s, specialising in still lives, interiors and some landscape. Lahey had a strong commitment to the arts, teaching both adult and childrens art classes, and along with Daphne Mayo was heavily involved in raising funds for, and promoting, the Queensland Art Gallery. She served on the gallery’s Art Advisory Committee (1931-37) ‘and often argued for a proper purchasing policy and a qualified full-time director - which occurred only in 1949’. She was commissioned by the Gallery to write Art in Queensland 1859-1959 which was published in 1959 and remains ‘a basic text for Queensland art history’. According to Nancy Underhill, Lahey’s main contribution was ‘to encourage excellence and public involvement in the visual arts, especially in Queensland, and to serve as a point of contact between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne’.* Vida Lahey was appointed to The Order of the British Empire - Member (Civil), 1 January 1958, for services to art in Queensland. Her painting 'Beach Umbrellas' was featured on the 1996 $1.20 stamp for Australia Day.
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Australian Women's Register
A traditional painter specializing in still life and landscape subjects. She was a great contributor to the art scene in Queensland and was very involved with the Queensland Art Gallery.
painter, was born in Pimpama, Queensland, where her family had timber holdings. Her early art studies were under Godfrey Rivers at the Central Technical College, Brisbane, but her main training was at the National Gallery School, Victoria, where she was enrolled in 1905-6 and 1909 under Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin. While in Melbourne she also studied watercolour painting with Walter Withers. In 1915 she went to London and, at the end of the war, to Paris, where she studied at ...
Flourished
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Design and Art Australia Online