Provenance Private collection Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 6 February 2003, lot P208 Acquired from the above Private Collection, Melbourne

Exhibited Paintings by Dora L. Wilson, Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne, 10 June 1944, cat. 59

Although she was born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in England, Dora L Wilson spent most of her life in Australia, in Melbourne. She studied first at Somerset School and Methodist Ladies College before attending the National Gallery School where she was taught by Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin. After seeing Anders Zorn's etchings in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria she enrolled in John Mather's etching classes. The quality of her early etchings, as well as those by her fellow student Jessie Traill, led to their work being reproduced in The Lone Hand in 1907. The same year she was awarded a silver medal for the best etching at the 1907 First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work, Melbourne.

After 1910 her Melbourne studio, Temple Court, Collins Street West, became the meeting place for the "Waddy" a group of former gallery school students who exhibited together from 1912. Wilson was also a member of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors.

From the 1920s onwards she concentrated largely on street scenes, and in 1923 she was commissioned by Sir Baldwin Spencer to undertake a series of paintings of European landmarks, which saw her travelling around Europe for over two years, accompanied by the photographer Pegg Clarke. In 1928 these works were exhibited at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London, and the following year at Australia House. In the early 1930s she focused on historical scenes from Melbourne's history, with an exhibition entitled 'Milestones of Melbourne' held at the Fine Art Society Gallery in March 1935.

Her work was received favourably by Arthur Streeton for being "fresh in colour and treatment and free from the depressing appearance of black paint."In 1937 she joined and exhibited with Robert Menzies' Australian Academy of Arrchibald Prize with portraits of fellow artist Sybil Craig and the writer Alan Marshall.