Bertha Merfield Explained

Bertha E. Merfield
Birth Date:30 January 1869
Birth Place:West Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Death Place:Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nationality:Australian
Education:Slade School, National Gallery School
Field:Painting

Bertha Merfield (1869–1921) was an Australian painter and muralist. She was a founding member of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society.[1]

Biography

Merfield was born in West Melbourne, Victoria on 30 January 1869 to Thomas and Isabella (née Wardman) Merfield.[2] [3] She studied at the Slade School in London, England and the National Gallery of Victoria Art School.[4] She made generous loans of works from her collection to the inaugural exhibition of Castlemaine Art Gallery in 1913, including paintings by Tudor St George Tucker, Alexander Colquhoun, George Clausen, Frederick McCubbin and Blamire Young.[5]

She was a member of the London Society of Mural Decorators and Painters in Tempera.[6] In 1916[7] her mural for the Cafe Australia in Melbourne received public acclaim. The building was demolished in 1938.

Merfield was a founding member of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society.

Merfield died on 20 September 1921 in Melbourne.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Members. Twenty Melbourne Painters Society Inc. 24 July 2017. 7 April 2018.
  2. News: Family Notices. 1869-02-01. Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954). 2020-01-28. 2.
  3. Web site: Birth Certiicate: Merfield, Bertha Elizabeth. Births deaths and marriages Victoria. 2020-01-28.
  4. Web site: Bertha E. Merfield b. c.1869. Design & Art Australia Online (DAAO). 7 April 2018.
  5. News: 16 September 1913 . The Art Gallery . 2 . Mount Alexander Mail . 2022-08-30.
  6. An Australian Decorative Artist, Miss Bertha Merfield. The Lone Hand. 1920. 7 April 2018.
  7. Web site: Balcony and mural in the main dining hall, Café Australia, Melbourne . 7 April 2018 . Walter Burley Griffin Society Incorporated.