Florence Rodway

A class, including Florence Rodway, at the Hobart Technical Colege, 1903 (AOT, PH30/1/113)

Florence Aline Rodway (1881–1971), artist, was born in Hobart, and studied painting, modelling and life-drawing at the Hobart Technical College under Ethel Nicholls and Benjamin Sheppard. She won a scholarship to study in London, then in 1906 settled in Sydney where she attended the Julian Ashton School. Florence found her metier in pastel work and miniatures, receiving many commissions for portraits, particularly of children. She exhibited regularly with the Women Painters and Society of Artists, Sydney, the Art Society of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Group of Painters. In 1920 she married Walter Moore, and in about 1932 established a studio in Hobart. She preferred to paint portraits from life during a number of sittings in order to study facial features and the way people and their expressions change. She is represented in many Australian galleries.

Further reading: ADB 11.

Sue Backhouse