Design and Art Australia Online

Maria Holgate was born in 1865 and at 21, commenced her studies at Melbourne’s National Gallery School 1886 – 1892. This was a period where Frederick McCubbin was a teacher and George Frederick Folingsby and then Lindsay Bernard Hall where Heads of the School (and also teachers of painting). Her first recorded exhibition is at the Victorian Artists Society Exhibition of 1893 where she exhibited three paintings.
Maria was a member of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors and exhibited with the society between 1907 to 1938.
Maria exhibited at the 1934 exhibition titled “Women Artists in Australia – A Representative Exhibition” held in Sydney. Artists such as Florence Rodway, Nora Heysen and A.M.E Bale featured at this national exhibition. Maria’s work, as with some other select artists, was noted as being painted with a “fine technical skill”.
She held later joint exhibitions in with Annie Gates at the Athenaeum Gallery in 1934 and 1936 where she exhibited 50 and 39 paintings respectively. She also held a joint exhibition with Annie Gates and other women artists at the Athenaeum Gallery in April of 1938.
She died suddenly at her residence in November 1938, and death notice states that there were a number of beautiful floral tributes bearing messages of sympathy and regret from her many friends.
Her painting “Bush Track” is held by the State Library of Victoria.

Writers:

Date written:

2023

Last updated:

2023