| Mary Edwell-Burke | |
| Birth Name: | Mary Edwards |
| Birth Date: | 19 June 1894 |
| Birth Place: | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Death Place: | Fiji |
| Nationality: | Australian |
| Field: | Painting, Sculpture |
Mary Edwell-Burke (1894–1988), was an Australian painter and carver.
Edwell-Burke was born on 19 June 1894 in Sydney.[1] She was the half-sister of Bernice E. Edwell.[2] She studied at the East Sydney Technical College.
In the 1920s she exhibited with the Royal Art Society (as Mary Edwards). Edwell-Burke was a finalist for the Archibald Prize in 1921 and 1922.[3] [4] From 1935-1945 she exhibited with the Australian Watercolour Institute (as Mary Edwards).[1]
In 1944 Edwell-Burke, along with Joseph Wolinski, brought legal action to overturn William Dobell's 1943 Archibald prize for his portrait Mr Joshua Smith, claiming the image was more a caricature than a portrait.[5]
In 1945 her portrait of Dame Enid Lyons, was rejected as 'unsatisfactory’ by the Federal Government’s Historic Memorials Committee. Edwell-Burke subsequently moved to Fiji and changed her name from Mary Edwards to Mary Edwell-Burke.[1]
Edwell-Burke died on 19 January 1988 in Fiji.[1]