Elizabeth Gray (née Sharpe) (1837 – 29 April 1903) was an Irish artist, etcher, and amateur photographer.

Life

Elizabeth Sharpe was born in Dublin in 1837 to a distinguished family. Her brother was Richard Sharpe RHA, inventor of the chromograph. Elizabeth was living in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

by early 1857. She married Charles Gray on 19 March 1857 in

Portland, Victoria Portland is a city in Victoria, Australia, and is the oldest European settlement in the state. It is also the main urban centre in the Shire of Glenelg and is located on Portland Bay. As of the 2021 census the population was 10,016, increasing ...

. The couple lived at their property at Nareeb Nareeb, near Portland. They had at least three daughters, with the eldest Annie was born on 14 April 1858. Gray died on 29 April 1903.

Artistic work

Gray worked in watercolour and pen-and-ink, with some of her early work in Australia consists of two watercolours of ''Sydney Town and Harbour'', and ''Sydney Heads'' from 1857. Gray continued to work artistically after her marriage. Her work in pen and ink was on a variety of surfaces, including eggs. Her work ''View of Ferntree Gully'' from 19 February 1860 is on porcelain. She contributed five works to the fourth Annual Exhibition of Fine Arts in Melbourne in 1864. The pieces were four landscapes and one rural scene. Along with her husband, Gray exhibited at the 1866 Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition, exhibited watercolours of Schnapper Point and Queenscliff, and two etchings called ''The Bluff'' and ''Beech Trees''. Her doilies or "etchings on linen, done with marking ink and a quill pen", won a medal. Gray presented two vases made from black swan eggs, etched with "some sketches of natural history", to the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

in 1867 during his visit to Victoria. For these she received a royal commission, and they were displayed at the 1872 Exhibition at the South Kensington Museum. Prince Alfred requested that she make a second pair for

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

, Gray made another pair mounted in silver. Two pen-and-ink drawings by Gray were displayed at the Victorian Intercolonial Exhibition preceding the 1873 London International, along with the vases. The pair of eggs belonging to the Prince were sold, with the Queen's are still held at Osborne House, Isle of Wight. Another surviving example of Gray's work is an etched opaline panel showing a fern gully. She also appears to have exhibited photographs of Aborigines at the 1888 Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Elizabeth 1837 births 1903 deaths 19th-century Irish women artists 19th-century British women photographers Irish illustrators Irish women illustrators Irish botanical illustrators Artists from Dublin (city) Australian women illustrators Irish women photographers Australian women photographers People from the Colony of Victoria 19th-century Irish photographers 19th-century Australian photographers