Name

Mary Cecil Allen

Other names

Allen, Cecil.

Culture

American | Australian

Gender

Female

Birth date

2 September 1893

Birth place

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia View on map Close map

Death date

7 April 1962

Death Place

Provincetown, USA View on map Close map

Movements

England 1912-13; USA from 1926

Occupations

Artist (painter) | Decorative / design artist | Drawer | Lecturer | Printmaker | Teacher

Summary

Worked: Australia (VIC), USA. Lithographs, Linocuts

NGA IRN

20392

Context

Australia

Biography

Mary Cecil Allen

Mary Cecil Allen was born in Melbourne on 2 September 1893 and studied at the National Gallery of Victoria School of Art between 1910 and 1912 and 1914 and 1916. In the intervening years she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.

In 1926 she left Australia to work firstly in France and later that year in the USA where she painted, and also produced a few lithographic prints. Most of Allen's time was spent in art education; she championed modern art and introduced Australian art abroad. Her working name in the USA was "Allen, Cecil".

During a visit to Australia in 1935-36 she exhibited paintings, pastels, drawings and lithographs at the Fine Art Society Gallery in Melbourne. In 1950 she settled in the art colony at Provincetown, Massachusetts where she continued to work until her death on 7 April 1962.

None of Allen's lithographs have been identified as yet but she is represented in the National Gallery of Australia collection by a woodcut printed in colour which is in the distinctive style of the Provincetown printmakers.

© Australianprints 1992

Last Updated

28 Jun 2021