B. 1892 – 1971 

Alongside her sister Elizabeth (Betty) Deans Paterson, Esther Paterson was born into an artistic family. She was the niece of landscape painter John Ford Paterson and grew up beside Annie and Frederich McCubbin, who encouraged her to pursue art. 

Paterson studied alongside WB McInnes at the National Gallery School under Bernard Hall and was the subject of McInnes’s 1926 Archibald-winning portrait. As well as pursuing opera, Paterson and her sister took classes at the Meldrum School of Painting, absorbing Max Meldrum’s tonalist teachings. 

 
The sisters became commercial artists, their illustrations for The Bulletin, Punch and Lone Hand in the 1920s celebrating the independent, modern woman. Paterson was the longest serving female office bearer in the Victorian Artists’ Society and her work is held at, among other institutions, the National Gallery of Victoria and Geelong Art Gallery.

To read a more in-depth biography of the artist, click here.