'In 1912 the 24th Annual Exhibition by the Queensland Art Society (QAS) held in the Brisbane Town Hall prominently displayed major paintings by two promising younger generation artists: Gwendolyn Stanley's 'Softly awakes my heart: an impression of the Opera Sansone e Delila' and Vida Lahey's 'Monday morning'. Lahey and Stanley (soon to marry fellow artist WG Grant) were the women who contributed most to the development of painting in Brisbane in the first half of the twentieth century.' (Publication abstract)