Alice Marian Ellen Bale, known as A.M.E. Bale, (11 November 1875 14 February 1955) was an Australian artist.
Early life and education
![Portrait of Alice M](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Portrait_of_Alice_M._E._Bale.jpg)
Bale was born in
Richmond, Victoria
Richmond is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Yarra local government area. Richmond recorded a population of 28,587 at the 2021 census, with a medi ...
,
on 11 November 1875
[''Victoria, Australia, Cemetery Records and Headstone Transcriptions, 1844–1997''] the daughter of Marian
and naturalist William Mountier Bale. She was an only child, and her family had houses in both
Kew
Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...
and
Castlemaine.
She studied art under
Frederick McCubbin
Frederick McCubbin (25 February 1855 – 20 December 1917) was an Australian artist, art teacher and prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, McCubb ...
and
Lindsay Bernard Hall
Lindsay Bernard Hall (28 December 1859 – 14 February 1935) was an English-born Australian artist, teacher and art gallery director.
Early life and career
Hall was born at Garston, Liverpool, England, the son of a broker of the same famil ...
at the
National Gallery School
The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years.
It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery ...
18951904.
[
]
Career
Bale came to prominence as an artist in Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
in the 1920s and 1930s, developing a reputation as one of Australia's pre-eminent flower and still life painters. Distancing herself from her fellow female artists who were more aligned with the suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
movement, Bale preferred to work hard within the constraints of the traditional structures of the art world, and never left Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
.
An active member of the Pickwick Club of Kew, she would gather with young members, some of whom were fellow Gallery School students, for weekly discussions where they adopted the personas of Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
' characters. There she developed an intimacy with fellow club member Norman Brown, which came to an end by 1906 with Brown's departure and Bale's reluctance to leave her ordered family life.
As a painter Bale did landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
s and portrait
A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...
s but was best known for her flower studies. She was able to sell her paintings and exhibit in not just Australia but also London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
.
She exhibited with the Melbourne Society of Women Painters 19171955.
Other activities
Bale edited the Victorian Artists' Society
The Victorian Artists Society, which can trace its establishment to 1856 in Melbourne, promotes artistic education, art classes and gallery hire exhibition in Australia. It was formed in March 1888 when the Victorian Academy of Arts (previously Vi ...
's journal ''VAS'' before her efforts to reform the society in 1917 and 1918 and an election loss got her ousted as a troublemaker. Her friend Jo Sweatman
Estelle Mary (Jo) Sweatman (1872-1956), was an Australian painter. She was a founding member of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society.
Early life and training
Sweatman was born in South Yarra 1872. She took drawing classes at a suburban ladi ...
, the last remaining female office bearer, was ousted also a few months later on an electoral technicality. They became foundation members of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society
Twenty Melbourne Painters Society is an Australian arts organisation that was established in 1918. The group split from the Victorian Artists Society to follow the Australian Tonalist Max Meldrum. Membership is restricted to 20 and is upon invitat ...
, Bale holding the position of secretary until her death.[Guidelines](_blank)
AME Bale Art Prizes, www.gleneira.vic.gov.au
In collections
* Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...
,
* National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum.
The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...
''.''
* Castlemaine Art Museum
Castlemaine Art Museum is an Australian art gallery and museum in Castlemaine, Victoria in the Shire of Mount Alexander. It was founded in 1913. It is housed in a 1931 Art Deco neo-classical building constructed for the purpose, heritage-listed ...
Awards
She was a finalist in the Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...
in 1922, and 1924, while 1932 Ernest Buckmaster's portrait of her was a finalist in the Archibald.
Death and legacy
Bale died on 14 February 1955[ in Melbourne.]
Scholarships and prizes
In 1977 Peter Wegner
Peter A. Wegner (August 20, 1932 – July 27, 2017) was a computer scientist who made significant contributions to both the theory of object-oriented programming during the 1980s and to the relevance of the Church–Turing thesis for empirical ...
was awarded the A.M.E. Bale residential painting scholarship under Sir William Dargie
Captain (armed forces), Captain Sir William Alexander Dargie (4 June 1912 – 26 July 2003) was a renowned Australian painter, known especially for his portrait paintings. He won the Archibald Prize, Australia's premier award for portrait ...
, awarded by Glen Eira City Council, which he undertook from 1978 to 1980.
AME Bale Travelling Scholarship and Art Prize
Bale established the biennial A.M.E. Bale Travelling Scholarship and Art Prize through her will to support Australian artists in perpetuity. The prize "is intended to encourage, support and advance classical training of emerging artists (in their early to mid-career) at any stage of life, who are pursuing the study and practice of traditional art and who desire to study the works of old masters".[
Three prizes are awarded:][
* Major Award for a Travelling Scholarship (A$50,000) since 2011]
* A.M.E. Bale Art Prize in the medium of oil and/or acrylic (A$5,000)
* A.M.E. Bale Art Prize for Works on Paper (A$5,000)
References
External links
Papers of the Bale family
''State Library Victoria
State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the ...
''
A. M. E. (Alice Marian Ellen) Bale
ustralian art and artists file ''State Library Victoria''
Flowers
/ A. M. E. Bale, ''State Library Victoria''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bale, Alice
Australian women painters
Heidelberg School
Artists from Melbourne
20th-century Australian painters
20th-century Australian women artists
Archibald Prize finalists
1875 births
1955 deaths
19th-century Australian women
People from Richmond, Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni