Australian artist Janet Agnes Cumbrae-Stewart was born in 1883. Her pastels are a curious mix of coy, girlish innocence and saccharine sensuality. In many of her pastels, Cumbrae Stewart has taken on the stereotype of the passive female nude and has attempted to rework it within her own sensibility. Virtually her entire oeuvre is devoted to the nude, and she was aware that her dainty, wanton pastels may have breached public taste, not only in subject but because their creator was a woman. She altered her hyphenated name, and exhibited and signed her name Cumbrae-Stewart, as countless women artists have done to 'protect' their sex from a judgmental public. The artist passed away in 1960.Burke, J. & Ewing and George Paton Galleries (1980). Australian Women Artists, 1840-1940. Greenhouse Publications, Collingwood, Victoria....