painter and printmaker, was born in Elsternwick, Victoria, on 15 March 1919. She studied art with Dattilo Rubbo in Sydney in 1931-37 and was elected a member of the Painter-Etchers Society in 1937 and of the Royal Art Society in 1943. In 1942 she executed murals and theatre sets for the Independent Theatre and the Theatre Royal; in 1944 (with William (Bill) Constable ) she did murals for the Stage Door Canteen, Sydney. She illustrated Alan Marshall’s People of the Dreamtime (Cheshire) and G. Rawson’s The Cruise of the Roebuck (Hawthorn Press), both published that same year (1944).
Thorpe travelled overseas in 1953 and studied printmaking with Gertrude Hermes at the Central School, London. The following year she was elected an associate member of the Society of Wood Engravers of Great Britain. On a second visit to London in 1960, she was elected a member of the Royal Graphic Art Society. After returning to Victoria in 1956, she joined the Melbourne Graphic Artists group. In 1964 she lectured in printmaking and watercolour at the NGV. She toured Bali and Java as art tutor in 1970. She was Patron of the PCA’s Print Commission in 1982. In the 1990s she was living and working in Queensland (Thomas).
Best known for her woodcuts and colour prints, Lesbia Thorpe had many solo and joint exhibitions and won many prizes for her prints (see aGOG). Her works include a large undated ink drawing of Aborigines in a landscape with black boys (Wrobel col.) and the linocut Desert Nomads 1994, edn 6 (aGOG).
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2007
