The art of John Kauffmann (signed presentation copy for Elsie F. Barlow)

Twenty illustrations in half-tone, with Biography and Essay by Leslie H. Beer. Melbourne : Alexander McCubbin, 1919. Limited edition of 500 copies, signed by the artist. Folio, printed green card wrappers (a few marks and short edge tears) over boards, endpapers (lightly foxed),18 pp, with 20 pp of plates. Presentation copy, signed and inscribed by the photographer in the year of publication, in his coloured pencil on the endpaper ‘To Elsie F. Barlow with compliments & best wishes from J. Kauffmann Nov 1919’.

Probably the first monograph on an Australian photographer to be published (Gael Newton, ‘Silver and Grey’). The book showcases the photography of South Australian-born and European-trained Kauffmann, widely regarded as the father of Pictorialist photography in Australia. His works are characterised by soft focus and a dark tonality.

‘Elsie Frederica Barlow (1876 – 15 November 1948), was an Australian painter and printmaker. She was a founding member of Twenty Melbourne Painters. She was also the first woman to have a solo exhibition in Castlemaine, Victoria … In 1894, Barlow enrolled at the Gallery School of Design where she was taught by Frederick McCubbin and Lindsay Bernard Hall. She attended the National Gallery School with her sister Dora Serle. Elsie and Dora both showed an early interest in art, taking classes at St Kilda Town Hall when they were kids … She was represented in an exhibition of Australian art at the Grafton Galleries London in 1898. Her painting Welcome News came second to Max Meldrum for the National Gallery School Travelling Scholarship in 1897 … She is acknowledged as the first woman to paint snowscapes which she would do by leaving the paper to weather outdoors while visiting her friend May Vale at Sassafras. Barlow was a founding member of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society. Barlow died in a private hospital in Mentone, Victoria on 15 November 1948.’ – Wikipedia