Elsie Frederica Barlow (1876 – 15 November 1948), was an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

painter and printmaker. She was a founding member of

Twenty Melbourne Painters 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 ...

. She was also the first woman to have a solo exhibition in

Castlemaine, Victoria Castlemaine ( , Variation in Australian English, non-locally also ) is a small city in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, in the Goldfields region of Victoria, Goldfields region about 120 kilometres (75 miles) northwest by road from ...

Biography

Elsie Frederica Barlow née Hake was born in 1876 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 ...

, Australia. She was one of seven children, the youngest of six girls born to Sidney Hake and Charlotte Hemsley. In 1894, Barlow enrolled at the Gallery School of Design where she was taught by

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 ...

. She attended 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 ...

with her sister

Dora Serle Dora Beatrice Serle (1875–1968), was an Australian painter. She was the president of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors from 1933–1934. Biography Serle was born on 2 September 1875 in Melbourne, Australia. She studied ...

. Elsie and Dora both showed an early interest in art, taking classes at

St Kilda Town Hall St Kilda Town Hall is a grand, classically styled city hall, located on the corner of Brighton Road and Carlisle Street in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. The first stage, never completed, was built as the municipal offices and public hall for th ...

when they were kids. She was represented in an exhibition of Australian art at the Grafton Galleries London in 1898. Her painting ''Welcome News'' came second to

Max Meldrum Duncan Max Meldrum (3 December 1875 – 6 June 1955) was a Scottish-born Australian artist and art teacher, best known as the founder of Australian tonalism, a representational painting style that became popular in Melbourne during the interwa ...

for the National Gallery School Travelling Scholarship in 1897. In 1901 she married police magistrate Arthur Barlow, assistant to Sir John Madden. They had three children, a son Basil in 1904, daughter Nancy in 1906, and Betty in 1907 who died a few months after birth. They lived in Maryborough in 1909 and moved to Castlemaine in 1912. In 1912 Barlow held a one woman show at the Mechanics' Institute in Castlemaine, where she displayed 90 paintings. This led to the eventual creation of the Castlemaine Art Gallery. Elise Barlow Beaumaris

She had a studio in Collins Street with her sister Dora from 1899 to 1901. Barlow moved to Melbourne in 1916 and Arthur died shortly after. She opened a new studio in the Dunklings Building in Melbourne in 1919, holding an exhibition of 76 paintings and 6 pen drawings in June of that year. She is acknowledged as the first woman to paint snowscapes which she would do by leaving the paper to weather outdoors while visiting her friend May Vale at

Sassafras ''Sassafras'' is a genus of three extant and one extinct species of deciduous trees in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia.Wolfe, Jack A. & Wehr, Wesley C. 1987. The sassafras is an ornamental tree. "Middle Eoc ...

. Barlow was a founding member 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 ...

. Barlow died in a private hospital in Mentone, Victoria on 15 November 1948. Watercolours of country and seaside
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Legacy

Retrospectives of her works were held in 1977 (at the Castlemaine Art Gallery) and 1978 (at the Duvance Galleries) to honour her as one of the founders of the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historic Museum. Hacke Place in the Canberra suburb of Conder is named in her honour and that of her older sister Dora, the misspelling of their maiden name being gazetted in 1988.

References

External links

Elsie Barlow
Australian art and artists file, '' State Library Victoria''
Gum trees of Australia : in pen & ink
by Elsie Barlow, '' State Library Victoria''
Catalogue of water colours
by Elsie F. Barlow, '' State Library Queensland''
Australia's message : sketches in pen and ink
by Elsie Barlow, ''

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

''
Works by Elsie Barlow
in Castlemaine Art Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Barlow, Elsie Frederica 1869 births 1948 deaths 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Australian artists 19th-century Australian women artists Artists from Melbourne Australian artists National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni