Elsie Frederica Barlow (1876 – 15 November 1948) was an Australian painter and printmaker She was a key figure in the formation of the Twenty Melbourne Painters and was the first woman to have a solo exhibition in Castlemaine, Victoria, which was the impetus for the formation of a public gallery in the town in 1913.
Elsie Frederica in Melbourne, Australia, in 1876, she was the youngest of six girls in a family of seven children of Charlotte (née Hemsley) and Sidney Hake. Elsie and her sister Dora exhibited early artistic interest, attending art classes at St Kilda Town Hall during their childhood. She enrolled at the Gallery School of Design in 1894, under the tutelage of Frederick McCubbin and Lindsay Bernard Hall.
Barlow gained recognition for her work when her painting “Welcome News” was awarded second place for the National Gallery School Travelling Scholarship in 1897. In 1901, she married Arthur Barlow, a police magistrate and assistant to Sir John Madden. They had three children and lived in various places before settling in Castlemaine in 1912. Notably, she held a significant solo exhibition at the Mechanics’ Institute in Castlemaine in 1912, showcasing 90 of her paintings, which inspired the founding of the Castlemaine Art Gallery.
Barlow was an early pioneer in painting snowscapes in Australia, made while visiting her friend May Vale at Sassafras, and she was a founding member of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society.
She kept a studio in Collins Street with her sister Dora from 1899 to 1901 before moving to Melbourne in 1916 just prior to the death of her husband. She opened a new studio in the Dunklings Building in Melbourne in 1919 in which, in June that year, she exhibited 76 paintings and 6 pen drawings.
Elsie Barlow died in a private hospital in Mentone, Victoria, on 15 November 1948. In subsequent years, retrospectives of her work were organized to honour her role as one of the founders of the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historic Museum. Additionally, Hacke Place in the Canberra suburb of Conder was named in honour Barlow and her sister.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2015
- Last updated:
- 2023
