Florence Aline Rodway (11 Nov. 1881-23 Jan. 1971) was an Australian artist best known for her portraits. Born in the Tasmanian city of Hobart, she was the second of 6 children to Leonard Rodway and Louisa Susan, née Phillips. She studied painting at the Hobart Technical College (now TasTAFE); after 2 years her work was sent to London, and she was awarded a 3-year scholarship to study painting at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. She is best known for having painted portraits of notable figures in Australian history, including Dame Nellie Melba, William Bridges, J. F. Archibald and Henry Lawson. ....In 1914 she had her first solo exhibition, of 40 portraits and pastel drawings at the Athenaeum Gallery in Melbourne. This included works lent by the owners (who were often the subjects of the works,) including Dame Nellie Melba, Julian Ashton and J.F. Archibald. She sat for a portrait painted by Norman Carter (in the collection of the State Library of New South Wales.) In a newspaper review of the Society of Artists' 1916 exhibition, she was commended as: 'the principal "dealer in magic and spells" due to pastel effort is Miss Florence Rodway, whose portraits are again one of the leading features of the show. The most striking example of her talent is the strong,young, handsome face of a woman full of vitality and expression, in which the flesh-tones show up admirably against the yellow, gold-tinted background. Miss Rodway's portraits of children are charming, and we like also the homely interior entitled "The New Teapot," in which the artist's fine appreciation of the pastel medium is markedly apparent.' She was commissioned to paint portraits for major public collections. The Art Gallery of New South Wales commissioned portraits of J.F. Archibald (1921) and William Bridges (1919). The Australian War Memorial commissioned portraits of William Bridges (1920), Henry Normand MacLaurin (1922) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Aline_Rodway undefined

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