B. 1902-1978

Born in Victoria in 1902, Jean Parker Sutherland was a painter, printmaker and decorative artist whose early promise led her to a varied and reflective career. Raised by her father, real estate agent George Sutherland, after her mother’s early death, she displayed an early artistic talent which was nurtured by her aunt Jean Goodlet Sutherland, a sculptor and painter. She trained at the National Gallery of Victoria School, winning the NGV Travelling Scholarship in 1923 and studying at London’s Royal Academy Schools soon after.

In Europe, Sutherland deepened her interest in photography, stencil work, printmaking, and ceramics, while also reporting on the Paris art scene for Melbourne newspapers. Her work was included in the 1926 Rome Scholarship exhibition and she visited Italy before returning to Victoria in 1927. Though briefly engaged to fellow painter Ernest Buckmaster, she remained unmarried, devoting her life to art and friendship, particularly with artist Sybil Craig.

An accomplished portrait, landscape and still life artist, Sutherland’s first, and only, solo exhibition was held at Melbourne’s Seddon Galleries in 1944. A member of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters, she exhibited regularly until the early 1950s. Despite limited public recognition in her lifetime, her legacy is preserved in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia, with much of her work remaining in private hands. Jean Sutherland died in Melbourne in 1978.