Janet's eldest brother, Francis William Sutton Stewart, became convinced of a family connection to the Stuarts of Bute and despite never proving the link, adopted "Cumbrae" to his name, and his siblings followed suit.

[4] This addition to the name would later serve a greater purpose for Janet, who quickly abandoned the hyphen and identified herself professionally as simply Cumbrae Stewart, and so avoided, to a certain extent, the limitations and scrutiny attached to her sex.

The Stewarts lived a very traditional upper middle class existence, with the boys studying at private school and the three girls receiving their early education at home under the supervision of a governess.

During her late teens, Cumbrae Stewart joined landscape painter, John Mather, and his students, on outdoor sketching exhibitions.

[6] From 1903 though 1908 Cumbrae Stewart studied at the Melbourne National Gallery School, where she was taught by Lindsay Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin.

[9] In an interview with the Brisbane Telegraph, Beatrice reports on a journey during which her sister was kept extremely busy with commissions from fellow passengers, working from a small studio space created by the ship's captain, below the bridge.

[11] Reports also suggest that Queen Mary herself attended her 1924 exhibition and complimented Cumbrae Stewart on her achievement and personally selected a pastel, described by the Royal Collection Trust as "A young woman seated on a bed.

Records from 1932 saw her residing in Laigueglia Italy,[14] and a report in the Brisbane Courier mentions an exhibition of her work held during this time at the Casa d'artisti, an art gallery located in Milan.

[17] In an interview published in The Australian, Cumbrae Stewart speaks of an atmosphere of ill-will toward the English after the Abyssinian War and brewing tensions under Mussolini may have underpinned the decision to move.

[20] The Brighton Southern Cross writes that Cumbrae Stewart continued working up until her death, painting portraits of well-known people including members of the Baillieu family.

Interest in her work has been somewhat renewed in recent years as a result of the industry's drive to write female artists back into the Australian art-historic narrative.

Few, if any, artists have come close to her ability with pastels in expressing the subtle modulations of tone and form of the human body, which despite being considered a feminine material, is notoriously difficult to master.