{{short description|Australian painter and war artist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox artist | name = Sybil Mary Frances Craig | image = Sybil Mary Frances Craig self portrait.jpg | image_size = | caption = | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|OAM|size=100}} | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1901|11|18|df=y}} | birth_place = London, United Kingdom | death_date = {{death date and age|1989|9|9|1901|11|18|df=y}} | death_place = Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | education = National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Working Men's College | field = Painting | training = | movement = | works = | patrons = | awards = | spouse = }}
'''Sybil Mary Frances Craig''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|OAM}} (1901–1989), was an Australian painter. She was appointed by the Australian War Memorial to accept the appointment as an official war artist. She was the first woman to paint women working in the munitions’ factories.<ref name="daao">{{cite web|last1=Wilkins|first1=Lola|title=Sybil Mary Frances Craig|url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/sybil-mary-frances-craig/biography/|website=Design & Art Australia Online (DAAO)|access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref> thumb|Sybil Craig in ballet costume
== Early life == Craig was born in London, England on 18 November 1901.<ref name="AustralianDictionary">{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |last1=Reilly|first1=Dianne|title=Craig, Sybil Mary Frances (1901–1989)|id2=craig-sybil-mary-frances-12363|access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref> She was the only child of affluent parents Matthew Frances Craig and Winifred Frances, née Major.<ref>{{Citation|last=Reilly|first=Dianne|title=Craig, Sybil Mary Frances (1901–1989)|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/craig-sybil-mary-frances-12363|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=2020-06-03}}</ref> Her family emigrated to Australia in 1902.<ref name="ngv">{{cite web|title=Sybil Craig|url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/1672/|access-date=27 March 2018|website=National Gallery of Victoria}}</ref> The Craigs first lived in Brighton, but moved to Caulfield in 1914 into a house built by Matthew.<ref>{{Citation|last=Reilly|first=Dianne|title=Craig, Sybil Mary Frances (1901–1989)|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/craig-sybil-mary-frances-12363|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=2020-06-03}}</ref> Craig recalled a childhood spent in a 'suburban bohemian household' that was frequented by artists and musicians.<ref>{{Citation|last=Reilly|first=Dianne|title=Craig, Sybil Mary Frances (1901–1989)|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/craig-sybil-mary-frances-12363|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=2020-06-03}}</ref>
==Career== From 1924 though 1931 Craig studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School where she was taught by Bernard Hall, William McInnes and Charles Wheeler.<ref name="AustralianDictionary" /> She also studied at the Working Men's College, Melbourne (now RMIT) in 1935.<ref name="daao" /> In 1932 she had her first solo show at the Melbourne Athenaeum.<ref name="daao" /> She had a studio on Collins Street from 1936 to 1951 and had the financial means that left her free to pursue painting.<ref name="AustralianDictionary" />
In March 1945 Craig became an official war artist, commissioned by the Australian War Memorial Board to record the contribution of women to the war effort. She recorded women working at the Commonwealth Explosives Factory at Maribyrnong, a suburb of Melbourne.<ref name="AustralianDictionary" /><ref name="Beyond">{{cite book|author=Catherine Speck|publisher=Reaktion Books|year=2014|title=Beyond the Battlefield, Women Artists of Two World Wars|isbn=978-178023-374-1}}</ref>thumb|left|in the 1920sCraig was a member of several artistic organizations including the New Melbourne Art Club, the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, the Victorian Artists Society, and the Twenty Melbourne Painters.<ref name="AustralianDictionary"/>
In 1978, the ''Important Woman Artists Gallery'' in East Malvern held a retrospective of her work.<ref name="AustralianDictionary"/>
She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 1981 Queen's Birthday Honours.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Miss Sybil Mary Frances CRAIG|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/870173|access-date=2020-12-06|website=It's An Honour}}</ref> Craig died 15 September 1989 in Melbourne.<ref name="Australian War Memorial">{{cite web|title=Sybil Craig|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10676776|website=The Australian War Memorial|access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== {{commons category|Sybil Mary Frances Craig|Sybil Craig}} *[https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/such-was-life/sybil-craig-a-life-in-pictures/ Sybil Craig: a life in pictures] by Olga Tsara
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Sybil}} Category:1901 births Category:1989 deaths Category:Painters from London Category:Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology alumni Category:World War II artists Category:English emigrants to Australia Category:Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Category:People from Caulfield, Victoria Category:Painters from Melbourne Category:National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni Category:20th-century Australian painters Category:Australian modern painters Category:20th-century Australian women painters