Edith M FRY

Miss Edith May FRY
1880
Died: ?1950 London (still to be verified)

Edith Fry has come to our attention due to her name appearing in the list of pupils who studied at the Newlyn School of Painting (Forbes School) in the 1920s (no specific dates known).

Edith May Fry was an expatriate Australian artist and author, born in Copeland, New South Wales. She was educated at Sydney Girls' High School, and then the University of Sydney, where she graduated with a BA (Hons) in 1904. She initially studied art in Sydney, but then went on to complete her training in Paris (including a stint at the Academie Colarossi). In the years following World War I, Fry moved to London, where she gravitated within expatriate art and literary circles.

During the early 1920s her works appeared in exhibitions in Paris and London, and at this time she also contributed occasional articles to magazines such as Studio, Connoisseur, Drawing and Design, Art in Australia, and also the Sydney Morning Herald. In 1924 she helped organise the 'Australian Artists in Europe' exhibition in London, and she was for a number of years the motivating force within the Panton Arts Club, which held exhibitions and literary events in London. She appears to have held editorial positions with Panton Magazine, and subsequently the British Annual of Literature (which featured her critical articles, poetry and reviews), and also the British Authors' Press.

One of her sisters was the Australian feminist, teacher and social worker F. M. (Mildred) Muscio (1882-1964), who obtained a BA degree in 1901. Another sister, Eva Fry, was for a number of years mathematics mistress at Ascham School, in Sydney.

Further biographical details are yet to be established.

A correspondent and relative of the sisters was in touch (2021) to clarify some dates, which have been amended above.

 

*Take care not to confuse Edith May Fry (b. 1883) with Edith Ada Fry (1858-1940), a prominent Australian feminist.

media

Painter in oils and watercolour of still-life and landscapes

exhibitions

Represented in Australian Artists Exhibition, Brighton 1925

 AB (2)

International Society (1)

P (1)

ROI (1)

SWA (2)

Edith may have exhibited at NAG during her stay here in the 1920s, but exhibition lists are not in WCAA archives for this period.

misc further info

 Photograph of Edith Fry in her file folder.

references

Green (2002) Posing the Model;

Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall;

Johnson & Greutzner (1975) Dictionary of British Artists;

 

The following references and a photograph of the artist provided by austlit, with many thanks for this detailed biographical entry.

1)      NSW Births/Deaths/Marriages on-line http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/searchHistoricalRecords.htm

2)      Main bio source - brief bio item and photo in the British Australian and New Zealander, 13 November 1924, p. 18

3)      info that can be gleaned via her various articles (some of these can now be tracked down on the National Library of Australia digitised newspaper web-site ‘Trove’).

4)      University of Sydney graduate records (B.A. in 1904…newspaper adverts for Brighton College refer to her having a B.A. Hons) - http://sydney.edu.au/arms/archives/grads.shtml

5)      Family info via ADB entry for Florence Mildred Muscio (Fry’s sister): http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/muscio-florence-mildred-7715

 

Details of her published works appear on AustLit at: http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A%23!Q

Recent articles which mention Edith Fry

‘French Floral and Female’ - https://emajartjournal.com/past-issues/issue-5/

 

 ‘Cities within Cities’ - arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/butler.pdf