Daphne Mayo’s Queensland legacy

Tue 3 Jun 2025

One of Queensland’s most significant artists, Daphne Mayo (1 October 1895 –1982) was also a leading Australian sculptor of the mid twentieth century, creating some of Brisbane's most known architectural monuments, her legacy still prominently on display today. She also was a passionate advocate for the visual arts who succeeded in creating cultural opportunities for her fellow Queenslanders.

In 1911, Mayo enrolled at Brisbane’s Central Technical College, studying under R Godfrey Rivers and LJ Harvey. Upon graduation in 1914, she was awarded a Travelling Art Fellowship provided by the Queensland Wattle League, enabling her to continue her studies at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, however her departure from Brisbane was delayed until 1919 by World War One. In 1923, she received the gold medal for sculpture — the Academy’s highest honour — which earned her a scholarship to Italy.

Daphne Mayo (centre foreground) was awarded the Wattle Day travelling art fellowship, 1914

Daphne Mayo (second from right) in a life study class, Royal Academy of Arts, London, c.1923

Mayo modelled Sketch (of a boy) 1921 (illustrated) soon after entering the Royal Academy of Arts. In her words, it symbolises 'the awakening from childhood into youth' and was 'only a month’s study at 1 3/4 hours a night, so it is not carried nearly as far as it could be', hence its title — Sketch. Under the terms of her travelling scholarship awarded by the Wattle Day League, the figure was forwarded to the League which, in turn, presented it to the Gallery.

Sketch (of a boy) 1921

In 1925, Mayo returned to Brisbane at the time the city was experiencing a building boom and she was soon to create the Tattersall's Club frieze (1926); the City Hall tympanum (illustrated) and concert hall frieze (1930); and the Queensland Women's War Memorial (illustrated) at Anzac Square (1932).

Daphne Mayo working on Brisbane's City Hall Tympanum, c.1930

City Hall Tympanum

Daphne Mayo working on Queensland's Women’s War Memorial panel, Anzac Square, c.1932

Anzac Square's Shrine of Remembrance

By 1937, after a decade working in Brisbane, Mayo travelled overseas again to observe recent developments in art and, in 1940 on her return, she moved to Sydney. While there during World War Two, she turned to figure and portrait sculpting rather than large-scale public commissions, including the 1944 bust of her lifelong friend Lloyd Rees (1895–1988) (illustrated) along with the Olympian c.1946 (illustrated).

Rees was a fellow student at Brisbane’s Central Technical College and they became close friends. He joined Mayo in England in 1923 and together they travelled through Europe drawing and painting. Rees regarded this bust as the best of the sculptured portraits ever made of him, writing of it: ‘so full of light and the wonderful drawing and form beautifully revealed’. 

Daphne Mayo and Lloyd Rees in England, c.1923

Portrait of Lloyd Rees c.1944

Mayo considered the human body as ‘a superlative piece of sculpture’, and Olympian illustrates her exceptional skill. There are two variations (illustrated) of this work differing in colour and stance. The earlier version has a black patina and was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1949, and this later one with a green patina, cast after 1958 and loaned to the Queensland Art Gallery before being acquired in 1979.

Olympian c.1946

Daphne Mayo’s Queensland legacy

Daphne Mayo was not only an outstanding artist, she was also a formidable advocate for the visual arts. In 1929, together with her friend the painter Vida Lahey, she founded the Queensland Art Fund, the main purpose of which was to acquire international works of art for public collections in Queensland. In 1932, Mayo also helped to set up the Godfrey Rivers Trust, the Queensland Art Gallery’s first substantial endowment, established in memory of her former art teacher, to acquire both Australian and European works. As a key player and purchaser for both these bodies until the 1960s, Mayo transformed the Gallery’s Collection with contemporary art, and during her involvement, the Fund and the Trust gave a total of 98 works to the Gallery.

Mayo also raised funds for the Gallery. In 1934–35, as the Queensland Art Fund’s honorary secretary, she led a public appeal to secure the Darnell Bequest, requiring her to suspend her sculptural work for almost a year. In June 1930, John Darnell, a wealthy Brisbane businessman, died leaving £10 000 to art in Queensland, on the condition it be matched by the public within five years, a seemingly impossible task during the Great Depression. The goal was reached just a day before the deadline, and Queensland gained its richest art bequest, of which £15 000 came to the Gallery.

Gifts of the Godfrey Rivers Trust through Daphne Mayo

In her purchases for the Godfrey Rivers Trust, Daphne Mayo deliberately sought out works that demonstrated ‘a forward sense of values . . . deemed to give stimulation at the time and have prospective value in the future’.

Mayo first saw William Dobell’s The Cypriot 1940 (illustrated), in 1942, when she visited his King’s Cross studio. Deciding the work ‘would look well in our Gallery’, she later managed to secure it for 100 guineas; this was just prior to the 1943 Archibald Prize controversy, which propelled Dobell to fame and caused the prices of his work to rise accordingly. Eric Wilson’s Stove theme 1942 (illustrated) was the Gallery’s first acquisition of an abstract painting, and was purchased soon after the artist's death, while Interior 1958 (illustrated) was the Gallery’s first acquisition of a work by Grace Cossington Smith.

William Dobell The Cypriot 1940

Eric Wilson Stove theme 1942

Grace Cossington Smith Interior 1958

Edited curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material sourced and compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA