Mary Augusta Walker b. 2 December 1856

  • Artist (Painter)
As a portrait painter, Walker trained in Europe at institutions such as the Slade School in London and Colarossi's in Paris. She received commissions from the Governor of Tasmania and Bishop Montgomery.
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Portrait painter, was born in Hobart on 2 December 1856. She studied with Mme Berthe Mouchette at Melbourne and later with Signor Loureiro. After returning to Hobart, she was sent to England by her family to study at the Herkomer School, Bushey c.1890. She also studied at the Slade School in London and at Colarossi’s in Paris. She spent some time in Brittany and had a studio in Paris in 1891. She returned to Tasmania in 1892 with a collection of work painted in England and France. Back in Hobart she taught drawing and Spanish at her sister Sarah’s school, the Hobart Ladies College and the Governor of Tasmania, Lord Gormanston commissioned her to paint portraits of his two daughters (c.1892). Other commissions included a portrait of Bishop Montgomery and a plaster cast of him now in the Cathedral Museum, Hobart. She presented a sketch of her brother, James Backhouse Walker, done in 1899 to the Tasmanian Royal Society in 1946 (now on loan to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery). Her studio was in Barrack Street, opposite the Anglesea Barracks. Later she moved to Geilston Bay to live with her sister Isabella. She died there on 21 April 1952.

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Writers:
Staff Writer
Gward
Date written:
1999
Last updated:
2017