Eirene Mort (1879 - 1977)

Born 17 Nov 1879 in Woollahra, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Died 1 Dec 1977 at age 98 in Bowral, New South Wales, Australia

Biography

Eirene Mort is Notable.

Eirene Mort was born on 17th November 1879 at Woollahra, New South Wales, Australia. She was the third child and older daughter of Reverend Henry Mort and Kate Isaacs.^[1][2] Eirene attended St Catherine's Clergy Daughters' School, Waverley, and studied painting with Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo and Albert Fullwood. In 1897 she travelled alone to London where she completed courses at the Grosvenor Life School, the Royal School of Art Needlework and the Royal College of Art, South Kensington, gaining its art-teacher's certificate.^[3]

Returning to Sydney in 1906, Eirene set up a studio which became one of Sydney's earliest centres for professional design and applied art. That year she was a founder of the Society of Arts and Crafts of New South Wales and was a vice-president until 1935. She helped to organise and publicise the Australian Exhibition of Women's Work in 1907. Visiting England again in 1909, Eirene studied mediaeval art, illustration and illumination, and etching. In 1914, she taught Sydney Ure Smith the etching process, and in 1927 exhibited a series of etchings of the Canberra district. Eirene was a founder in 1921 of the Australian Painter-Etchers' Society, honorary treasurer of the Australian Ex Libris Society and a member of the Australian Bookplate Club. She was also a founder of the Australian Guild of Handicrafts.^[3]

A respected teacher of art, she served as principal of the Women Painters' Art School and taught at such schools as Abbotsleigh, Kambala, and Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School, Darlinghurst, and later at Frensham, Mittagong. She lived at Greenhayes, Mittagong, from 1937 and continued to teach until she moved to Bowral in 1960.^[3]

Eirene passed away, unmarried, on 1st December 1977 at Bowral, New South Wales.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ New South Wales Birth Index #6147/1879
2. ↑ Family Notices (Birth Entry), Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 4 December 1879, p8, Article Link
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Henry, Margaret. Mort, Eirene (1879–1977), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986; accessed online 4 Nov 2019
4. ↑ New South Wales Death Index #28342/1977