Florence Ada Fuller

Florence Ada Fuller (1867–1946), painter, was born in South Africa and migrated as a child to Melbourne. There she studied at the National Gallery School and worked as a governess before opening a studio specialising in portraits in 1886. Three years later, she won the prize for the best portrait by an artist under 25 at the inaugural exhibition of the Victorian Artists' Society. In 1892, Fuller spent two years living with family in the Cape of Good Hope. For the next decade, she lived in England and Europe, studying at Académie Julian until 1901 and exhibiting at the Paris Salon, Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. She painted a portrait of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa in 1899. On her return to Australia in 1904 she moved to Perth, where she painted portraits and her 1905 masterpiece A Golden Hour, now in the National Gallery of Australia collection. Fuller also showed with the WA Society of Arts and taught pupils including Kathleen O'Connor. In Perth she was very active in the Theosophical Society, and in 1908 she moved to Calcutta, where she lived at the theosophists' headquarters for three years and painted. Later Fuller lived in Mosman, Sydney, afflicted with mental illness and painting miniatures; she died in the Gladesville Mental Asylum. Her work is represented in major Australian galleries.