Ada Whiting was an Australian oil and watercolour painter and miniaturist. She was active from 1898 to 1944, and received prestigious commissions to paint vice regal representatives, prominent members of society and celebrities, in Melbourne and later Sydney.
Biography
Ada Clara Whiting (1859-1953) was born Ada Clara Cherry in Hobart, Tasmania. She was the second-eldest of five children of the English-born photographer, artist and miniaturist George Cherry and Mary Ann Mathilda (née James). After the early death of her parents, Whiting moved to Geelong with her siblings, where she attended the Geelong Technological School and School of Drawing. In 1874, she was awarded first prize for figure drawing and in 1879 she received prizes for flowers in nature and shells. Whiting's work was also included in the Melbourne School of Design's exhibitions at the Academy of Arts in 1877.
Whiting obtained work with the photographic studio Johnstone, O'Shannessy and Co, hand-colouring photographs. She married photographer Saville Whiting in 1888. Her husband had also been employed at Johnstone, O'Shannessy and Co. After a difficult marriage and two children, they eventually divorced in 1899, with Whiting citing "desertion and habitual drunkenness" as the causes. Whiting had already found a studio and was working to support herself and her children as early as 1893.
Achieving notability
Whiting's father had known Arthur Streeton and it is possible that Streeton suggested she try her hand at miniatures. She acquired the skills necessary, including "stippling with a camel hair brush", and she achieved notability, which was commented on regularly during her career, when one of her early miniatures was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1900. Painting miniatures was time-consuming, but Whiting was known for working quickly and her watercolour miniatures on ivory were greatly admired. She usually only required a small number of sittings and was adept at painting from photographs, including portraits of people who had died. The latter sort of commission was quite common.
In 1900, she was exhibiting at the Albert Street Galleries in Fitzroy, and her miniatures were regarded as being worthy of the name "miniature" and were regarded as "daintily pretty". By 1901, Whiting had established her studio on Collins Street, Melbourne. Her success at the Royal Academy resulted in a steady stream of commissions from influential people, and her skill in creating miniatures was widely recognised.
In 1902, it was noted in the Melbourne newspapers she was undertaking a number of commissions, mostly of children from prominent families.
In 1904, the then National Art Gallery, Sydney (now known at the Art Gallery of NSW), was exhibiting a small set of her miniatures and in 1905 acquired three of these for their collection, including one of Miss Ruby Webb.
In 1909, Whiting was invited to submit works for the Federal Art Exhibition in South Australia, with her four miniature pictures being regarded as "all that can be desired in this delicate branch of art".
From 1915, Whiting continued to exhibit and receive prestigious commissions. with regular complimentary references in the newspapers of the day, such as: "Mrs Whiting ... stands at the head of her profession in the miniature branch of portraiture". Those regular references would have been an important part of maintaining her reputation as a skilled miniature portrait painter in the minds of potential clients. She regularly visited her son Saville in Sydney, and received commissions to paint members of the wealthy Australia Hordern dynasty, as well as the daughter of the NSW Governor.
Whiting received many prestigious commissions to paint miniatures, including ones of the great Victorian art benefactor Alfred Felton and the Earl of Linlithgow.