The Society of Artists was formed when a group including Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton broke away from the Royal Art Society of New South Wales in 1895. Membership was confined to professional artists. The Society held regular exhibitions until 1902 when, lured by the government's promise of an £800 travelling scholarship, the two societies re-amalgamated. In 1907, the Society of Artists broke away once more. This photograph depicts the committee who determined which (or whose) works would be exhibited in the Society's annual show. The sitters, left to right, are: artist Julian Ashton (1851–1942); artist's model and muse Rose Lindsay (née Soady, 1885–1978); cartoonist Harry Weston (1874–1938); artists Will Dyson (1880–1938) and Norman Lindsay (1879–1969); a sitter identified as 'young Souter'; artist Sydney Long (1871–1955); and cartoonist and journalist David Souter (1862–1935).
The Society held regular exhibitions until the 1940s, but its influence dwindled with the formation of other groups, notably the Contemporary Art Society, and gradually it ceased to operate altogether.
Purchased 2008
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