Sophie Steffanoni
1873 - 1906
Biography
Steffanoni was a professional artist, working for the family embroidery business where she was the main designer and receiving first prize at the World Columbian Exhibition in Chicago with her embroidered Australian Coat of Arms. She was a member of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales, regularly exhibiting between 1895 – 1903. Steffanoni took painting lessons with William Lister Lister, along with fellow students including Jessie Scarvell, where she would have been exposed to painting en plein air. Her work was praised by newspaper critics, with her painting Paradise Hill, Blackheath, illustrated in the Sydney Mail in 1903. Sadly, Steffanoni died of tuberculosis aged only thirty-two.
Exhibitions
Sophie Steffanoni 1873 - 1906, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1996
Achievements, Collections & Commissions
Wollongong Art Gallery
Bibliography
Butterfield, Annette, Sophie Steffanoni (1873 – 1906) Sydney Woman Impressionist, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, vol 2, no 1, 2001
Butterfield, Lewis Steffanoni, Australian Dictionary of Biography, online
Kerr, Joan, Heritage: The National Women’s Art Book, Art and Australia, 1995
McDonald, Patricia, Sophie Steffanoni 1873 - 1906, Art Gallery of New South Wales, exhibition catalogue, 1996