Ivy Burton Fox, Melbourne Town Hall, Manchester Unity Building, c1970
Summary
Ivy Burton Fox, born Ivy Burton Read in Prahran in April 1899 (d. 1987), was a watercolourist, commercial artist and art teacher, who began her studies at the National Gallery School in Melbourne in 1915; she later studied at the San Francisco School of Fine Art and the Californian College of Arts and Crafts. She married fellow Australian artist and photographer Elton Fox in San Francisco in 1921, the couple returning to Melbourne in 1935. They opened a commercial art school in the city (Fox Art Academy 1935–39) and then the Elton Fox Art Gallery (1950) in Healesville, an area with which they had a long association. Ivy was a member and regular exhibitor at the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors until 1980.
This framed watercolour was painted by Ivy Burton Fox around 1970, showing the Melbourne Town Hall and the Manchester Unity Building in a view that draws the eye west along Collins Street. The soft brushwork and blurred colours create an unassuming and delicate cityscape.
