From Bendigo to Paris: Exhibition showcases trailblazer Agnes Goodsir

Now the Bendigo Art Gallery is paying tribute to an artist who was confined to her house painting muse and life partner Rachel Dunn, because she didn't have a male chaperone.

Many of the male artists of her era will be showcased in the gallery's Paris: Impressions of Life 1880-1925 exhibition later this month, but it has given her pride of place in her own special exhibition.

Goodsir trained at the Bendigo School of Mines, where she was encouraged by her tutor Arthur T Woodward to travel to Paris.

Her works returned to her home country after her death, with her legacy living on in Australia.

Bendigo Art Gallery curator Emma Busowsky said she wanted to showcase Goodsir's work as part of a collection of Australian artists in Paris during the Belle Epoque.

"She was very much part of this very interesting milieu of people who lived in Paris at that time," she said.

"Australian artists, but artists from all over the world were attracted to the city and it's very dynamic, creative atmosphere. It was a freer atmosphere in a lot of ways."

Goodsir's choice of subject matter was domestic interiors and decorative portraits, which Ms Busowsky said was born out of social restrictions placed on women at the time.

"Women really were relegated to the private sphere," she said.

"And that is reflected in these works when you might see paintings by male artists of this period, the French impressionists for example, they were outside, they were out on the street painting, but women had to have a male chaperone to go out.

"The type of paintings and things that they produce reflected that, so you do see these interior scenes and domestic still lives and so on."

Ms Busowsky said artists like Goodsir had to be extraordinarily good to make it as an artist in Paris.

But as Goodsir put it in a 1906 article, making it in Paris "means just everything".

"Nothing else is of the smallest or faintest importance besides that," she said.

Ms Busowsky said the room filled with Australian artists who worked in or took inspiration from Paris added another dimension to the major exhibition.

"We can put on these big international exhibitions ... but it's a good opportunity to showcase some of our own local art and collections," she said.

"I certainly hope more people discover Agnes Goodsir and some of those lesser-known stories about some of the little works that we have."

Some of the other works displayed include Goodsir's contemporary Bessie Davidson and Melbourne-born Rupert Bunny.

Traditional Australian artist Charles Conder was also included, as his portrait was painted by Toulouse-Lautrec in 1893.

Bendigo Art Gallery's Paris: Impressions of Life 1880-1925 exhibition is on from March 16 to July 14.