Women with fans is a key example of the woodcuts Thea Proctor produced between 1925 and the early 1930s — the print is reproduced on the cover of Thea Proctor: The prints, the standard monograph on the artist. In this artwork, Proctor has juxtaposed black against white to great effect, allowing the strong lines of her composition to dominate. The posed stillness of the two women in the centre of the print is contrasted against the busy cityscape in the background, creating an interesting tension that is characteristic of Proctor’s work. The interior depicted is likely to be the artist’s Sydney home, thus providing an intimate glimpse into her domestic world.

A doyenne of style, Proctor had numerous fashionable and significant women friends, including her cousin the artist and illustrator Hera Roberts and the poet and author Dorothea Mackellar. While the models in Women with fans have not been identified, the original inspiration for the print was Proctor’s earlier watercolour on silk The bay 1927 (Art Gallery of New South Wales).¹ The women’s chic attire and hairstyles reflect the fashions of the day, and are indicative of Proctor’s interest in costume and design.² The striking floral dress worn by the woman on the right makes reference to the costumes of the Ballet Russes, which Proctor had seen perform in 1911, and of which she said: ‘It would be difficult to imagine anything more beautiful and inspiring’.³ 

Endnotes

1. Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax, Spowers and Syme, National Gallery of Australia, 2021, p.34, fn.10.
2. In 1928, Proctor completed an interior design course by correspondence with an institute in New York. Helen Topliss, Modernism and Feminism: Australian women artists 1900–1940, Craftsman House, Roseville East, 1996, p.162.
3. Thea Proctor in Joan Kerr (Ed.), Heritage: The national women's art book, Craftsman House, Roseville East, 1995, p.433.