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Florence Turner Blake

Australian artist (1873–1959)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 9, 2025
Entity authorityQ21759305 ↗
Source-derived summary

Florence Turner Blake (1873–1959) was an Australian artist and benefactor. She was also known professionally as Florence Turner Mofflin, Florence Turner Greaves and Florence Mofflin.

Early life

The youngest of six children she was born as Florence Turner Blake Greaves on 26 October 1873 at Armidale, New South Wales to parents William Albert Braylesford Greaves and Annie Greaves, née Mackenzie. When she was about seven the family moved to Braylesford, in Bondi Road, Bondi.

Career

Florence Greaves was one of Julian Ashton's first students at his Sydney Art School It is likely that she met Tom Roberts through Ashton. There are two portraits of Florence by Tom Roberts, Portrait of Florence (circa 1898) and a pastel, Miss Florence Greaves, drawn in 1898.

In April 1902, Florence married William Edward Kugelmann Mofflin at St Luke's Anglican Church, Concord, Sydney. Although some of her works bear her married name, she divorced her husband in 1915.

Following her father's death in 1925 she traveled to London where she studied at the Slade School, London between 1925 and 1929 under Henry Tonks and became friendly with Lucien Pissarro, who gave her a painting.

In 1928 she dropped the name of her former husband by deed-poll and was known by the name Florence Turner Blake, in reference to her great-grandparents on her father's side, Thomas Turner and Barbara Blake.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Florence Turner Blake” as australian artist (1873–1959). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1873, 1959, 1898, 1902—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1873-10-26. The account is most persuasive where Florence, Turner and Blake can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as australian artist (1873–1959). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q21759305. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1873, 1959, 1898 and 1902.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Florence Turner Blake”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Florence Turner Blake primary sources, Florence Turner Blake archive and Florence research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Florence Turner Blake”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Florence Turner Blake” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.