Vida Lahey

Frances Vida Lahey MBE (/vaɪdə leɪiː/ VEYE-də LAY-ee; She attended Goytelea School at Southport, and later studied painting at the Brisbane Technical College under Godfrey Rivers. She studied at the National Gallery School, Melbourne under Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin in 1905 and again in 1909.

During World War I, she travelled to London to be in proximity to her brothers and cousins who were serving with the AIF, as well as to study art when she could.

Career

Vida Lahey was one of the first female artists in Queensland and Australia, who regarded themselves as professionals and who sought to earn a living from practising their art. Lahey pioneered art classes for both children and adults in Queensland; and she and Daphne Mayo were responsible for the foundation of the Queensland Art Fund in 1929, which helped to establish an art library and acquire works of art for the state. She travelled to Europe in 1927 for further opportunities to study art. Lahey was awarded the Society of Artists (NSW) Medal in 1945, in appreciation of good services for the advancement of Australian art, the Coronation Medal in 1953 and in 1958 honoured with an MBE for services to art.

Later life Vida Lahey's house Wonga Wallen was originally built for her brother Romeo Lahey in Canungra, on a spur of the Darlington Range and was completed in 1920. Later the house was moved from the outskirts to the Canungra township on the hill above the present Catholic Church and occupied by her parents David and Jane Jemima Lahey, and then moved again by Vida and her sister Jayne Lahey in 1946 to its present block in Sir Fred Schonell Drive, St Lucia in Brisbane.

Lahey remained at Wonga Wallen in St Lucia until her death on 29 August 1968 and was cremated. Wonga Wallen was transferred to the sole ownership of her sister Jayne who remained there until a few years before her death in 1982 during which time another sister, Mavis Denholm (née Lahey), lived in the house. The house was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. Her painting Monday Morning is part of the Queensland Art Gallery's collection.

Exhibitions

Songs of Colour: The Art of Vida Lahey, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1989. Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2020–2021.

Oral history

An oral history interview with Lahey, recorded in 1965, is available at the National Library of Australia.