Curriculum Vitae of Dora Toovey
1898 Born 28 December in Bathurst
1902 Ithaca House in Bathurst sold
1910 Attends SCEGGS School, Darlinghurst/Sydney
1914 Father Captain Toovey joins Great War
late 1910s attends a business college
1919 Starts working at Commonwealth Bank
1920s Studies at Royal Art Society with James R. Jackson and Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo
1924 Marries James R. Jackson
1927 Travels with James R. Jackson to Italy, France and Spain
1927 Meets Augustus John in France and studies with him
1928 Paints in Spain and Balearic islands with James R. Jackson
1929 Daughter Jacqueline born in Sydney
1931 Builds Lanyon Flats at Lavender Bay
1932 Oversees building of home in Battle Boulevarde, Seaforth (featured in Australian Home Magazine with photos by Harold Cazneaux in May 1933).
1933 Seaforth home leased to Ken Patrick and wife Heather Winn
1933 Travels and lives with family in camps at Lanyon near Canberra, Murrumbidgee, and Higgins property Gloucester
1934 Macquarie Galleries exhibition
1936 Son Murray born
1938 Studies portraiture with William Beckwith McInnes in Melbourne
1938 Exhibition at Rubery Bennett Galleries, Sydney
1939 Lives at Walker Street North Sydney
1940 Jacqueline and Murray Jackson attend Wenona School
1943 Archibald Prize finalist with portrait of Lieutenant A.R. Cutler, V.C.
1944 Paints at the trial of William Dobell on his portrait of Joshua Smith which had won the Archibald Prize
1947 Divorce from James R. Jackson
1948 Archibald Prize finalist with portrait of Hugh Laming
1950 Marries George Scott, teacher and former headmaster of Cleveland Public School, living at 23 Parriwi Road, Mosman
1951 Wynne Prize finalist
1950 Archibald Prize finalist with portrait of aviator Nancy Bird Walton
1953 Paints in Snowy Mountain region
1955 Archibald Prize finalist with portrait of Prof. Emeritus Griffith Taylor, Antarctic explorer
1956 Archibald Prize finalist with portrait of artist Lloyd Rees
1957 Painting of Wynyard Park
1960 Portrait of Sir Herbert Schlink for the Ski Club of Australia
1961 Archibald Prize finalist with portrait of Roy Fluke (now in the Art Gallery of NSW collection)
1964 Joins Beauty Point branch Liberal Party
1965 Paints Robin McKellar, wife of politician Michael McKellar
1966 Trip to Central Australia
1967 Painting of aboriginal nativity Mother and Child Christmas card
1970 Wins Portia Geach Memorial Award with Self Portrait in Landscape
1974 Trip with son Murray to South America (Peru)
1975 James R. Jackson dies
1978 Wins Portia Geach Memorial Award with portrait of Senator Neville Bonner
1980 Possibly trip with Julia and Jacqueline Jamieson to Birdsville track
1980 17 April: Grand Artists' dinner in honour of 13 distinguished artists of 80 years of age. Apart from Dora Toovey, the guests of honour were Lloyd Rees, Douglas Dundas, Desiderius Orban, George Finey, Sali Herman, Rubery Bennett, Noel Kilgour and Robert Emerson Curtis. Not able to attend were Grace Cossington Smith, Erik Langker, Maximilian Feuerring and Ronald Steuart.
Other guests included Margaret Olley, John Coburn, Roy Fluke, Guy Warren, Alan D. Baker, John Santry, Peter Laverty, Joshua Smith
1986 Dies 13 July and buried under her married name Dora Scott at Mona Vale Cemetery, Sydney, NSW
Dora Toovey's works are represented in
National Gallery of Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of South Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Queensland Art Gallery (Portrait of Sir Raphael Cilento, c. 1967)
Manly Art Gallery & Museum
Mosman Art Gallery
Newcastle Art Gallery
National Portrait Gallery
University of Sydney (Portrait of Francis Arnaud Bland; Portrait of Prof. Emeritus Griffith Taylor, Antarctic explorer)
Parliament House, Canberra
Lismore Regional Gallery (Cox's River sketch, 1959)
Bundaberg City Collection
Prizes
1962 and 1963 Prizes at Ryde
1963 Katoomba
1965 Northside Festival
1967 Royal Art Society New South Wales
1970 Portia Geach Memorial Award with Self portrait in landscape (now in the collection of the Art Gallery of NSW)
1978 Portia Geach Memorial Award with a portrait of Senator Neville Bonner