Jean Bellette

Jean Bellette (1908-1991), painter, studied in her native Hobart before moving to Sydney to train with Julian Ashton. She married Paul Haefliger, art critic, and after a period at the Westminster Art School, where her teachers included Mark Gertler, she returned to Sydney with Haefliger at the end of the 1930s. Here she built her reputation on neoclassical figures in landscapes, contributing illustrated articles to Art in Australia and teaching at the East Sydney Technical College. She won the Sulman Prize in 1942 and 1944. She and Haefliger bought a cottage in Hill End, New South Wales, and hosted many amongst the first wave of artists to the area. From 1957, the couple lived in Mallorca, Spain, where she painted some of her finest works. The Hill End cottage was bequeathed to the New South Wales government for use as an artists' retreat. Bellette is represented in all state galleries and in the National Gallery of Australia. A touring retrospective exhibition, featuring 75 works including works on paper and textiles as well as Bellette's writings and photographs, was mounted jointly by the Bathurst Regional Gallery and the SH Ervin Gallery in 2005.