Bern Emmerichs

Wearing the Pants

2024

painted ceramic (fired) and mixed media

30.00 x 90.00 cm

A painting about the bold and fearless female bushranger Jessie Hickman.
Born Elizabeth Jessie Hunt in 1890 in N.S.W. At the age of 8 Jessie's mother had sold her to a circus. By age 17 she had become the national rough rider champion and the ring mistress of Martini's Buckjumping Show! After leaving the circus she married Ben Hickman, who was sent off to war. They had a child which Jessie handed over to a friend to raise, as she took off to the Great Dividing Range.. There she became a cattle duffer,evading police, with her dare devil stunts, living in a cave in the Woolemi ranges. She had several gangs,calling them her 'young bucks'.By 1916 Jessie had served two terms in the Long Bay Gaol.She died in 1936, from a brain tumor,age 47.In her cave a blue enamel teapot was found.and a wooden box. Her love of the mountains painted...like a Julie Andrews figure from The Sound Of Music.....The 'Barbie' boxed doll reference....fit for a total female legend... and the embellished decal of 'The Horse Fair' by Rosa Bonheur the fabulous chain smoking, pants wearing,,hair cropped short lesbian trailblazing artist of the 1850s.All women following unconventional lives...and opening doors for other females! Poem is by Joe Pascoe.

$12,500.00