Ethel Louise Spowers (11 July 1890 – 5 May 1947) was an Australian artist associated with the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London. She was especially known for her

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of relief printing in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief printing, relief surface. A design i ...

s, which are included in the collections of major Australian and British Art Galleries. She was also a founder of the

Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museum ...

, promoting modern art in Australia.

Early life

Ethel Louise Spowers was born on 11 July 1890, in

South Yarra South Yarra is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Stonnington local government areas. South Yarra recorded a populati ...

, Melbourne, daughter of a New Zealand father and a London-born mother. Her father, William Spowers, owned a newspaper. Spowers trained as an artist at the

National Gallery of Victoria Art School The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years. It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery S ...

1911-17, with some study in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

as well (most notably with

André Lhote André Lhote (5 July 1885 – 24 January 1962) was a French Cubist painter of figure subjects, portraits, landscapes, and still life. He was also active and influential as a teacher and writer on art. Early life and education Lhote was bor ...

).Stephen Coppel, "Ethel Louise Spowers,"
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' 16(2002). She was educated at

Melbourne Girls Grammar School Melbourne Girls Grammar School (commonly called MGGS and formally known as MCEGGSFalk, B. (2012Australian Dictionary of Biography: Dorothy Jean Ross. M.U.P. Retrieved 7 August 2018), is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for girls, ...

in Melbourne. Wealthy and cultured, her family owned a mansion in

St Georges Road St Georges Road is a main road in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne, which passes through the suburbs of Fitzroy North, Northcote, Victoria, Northcote, Thornbury, Victoria, Thornbury and Preston, Victoria, Preston. Route St Georges Road ...

Toorak Toorak () is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Stonnington local government area. Toorak recorded a population of 12,817 at the 2021 census. The name ...

. Ethel continued to live there as an adult and maintained a studio above the stables.

Career

Spowers had her first solo exhibit in Melbourne at age 30, showing fairy-tale illustrations as those of Ethel Jackson Morris. Two further solo shows (1925 and 1927) at the New Gallery, Melbourne, confirmed her reputation as an illustrator of fairy tales, though by then she was also producing woodcuts and

s inspired by Japanese art and covering a broader range of subjects. Her style and artistic focus changed in 1928–29 when she studied linocut printmaking with Claude Flight at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London. She was one of several Australian women artists at the Grosvenor School, including Dorrit Black and

Eveline Winifred Syme Eveline Syme (26 October 1888 – 6 June 1961) was an Australian artist associated with the Grosvenor School of Modern Art, and an advocate for women's post-secondary education. Early life Eveline Winifred Syme was born in Thames Ditton, Surr ...

. Further classes followed in 1931, during which Spowers absorbed modernist ideas of rhythmic design and composition from the principal of Grosvenor School Iain Macnab. In the 1930s her linocuts attracted critical attention for their bold, simplified forms, rhythmic sense of movement, distinctive use of colour and humorous observation of everyday life, particularly the world of children. They were regularly shown at The Redfern Gallery, London. Spowers mounted an exhibition of Australian linocuts in Melbourne in 1930. In 1932, she became a founder of the

, promoting modern art in Australia.Helen Topliss, ''Modernism and Feminism: Australian Women Artists, 1900–1940''
(Sydney: Craftsman House 1996).

Selected works

* Yallourn (1933) * Bank holiday (1935) * Resting models (1933) * Wet afternoon (1930) * Gust of Wind (1931) *Bank Holiday (1935)

Death and legacy

Spowers died on 5 May 1947, after a long illness from cancer, in Melbourne, age 56. She was buried at Fawkner Memorial Park. A children's book illustrated by Spowers, ''Cuthbert and the Dogs'', was published the year after her death. Spowers apparently destroyed some of her original works late in life. In 2011, Ethel Spowers' ''Wet Afternoon'' sold in New York City for £51,650, much higher than any of her previous works had brought at auction. The next year, Spowers' ''The Gust of Wind'' more than doubled that mark, selling for £114,050 in April 2012, a record price for any Grosvenor School print up to that date.Nicholas Forrest, "Six Rare Ethel Spowers Prints Head to Auction in London,"
''Blouin ArtInfo'' (1 April 2013). The Art Gallery NSW holds several of her works, some from an early period of realistic illustrations, others showing the marked influence of her time at the Grosvenor School.Works by Ethel Spowers, Art Gallery NSW, http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=spowers-ethel The

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

holds 47 of her prints executed in the 1920s and 1930s. Her prints are also held in the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

and the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria.

The British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

and the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

purchased a number of her linocuts.

Gallery

Watercolor on paper

File:The Enchanted Birds (1927).jpg, The Enchanted Birds (1927) File:Ethel Spowers, Le cerf-volant (The Kite).jpg, ''The Kite'' Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney File:Ethel Spowers, Children walking (encre et aquarelle).webp, ''Children walking'' (ink & watercolour) File:The Kite Flyers.jpg, The Kite Fyers (1927)

Linocuts

File:Ethel Spowers The Noisy Parrot c. 1926.jpg, Ethel Spowers, The Noisy Parrot, c. 1926. File:Ethel Spowers. The plough, 1928. Linocut.jpg, Ethel Spowers, ''The plough'', 1928, linocut. Gift of Rex Nan Kivell, 1953.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa ( Māori for ' the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand ...

(1953-0003-327) File:Ethel Spowers. Wet afternoon, 1930. Linocut.jpg, Ethel Spowers, ''Wet afternoon'', 1930, linocut. Gift of Rex Nan Kivell, 1953.

(1953-0003-328) File:Ethel Spowers. Merchants, Port Said, 1932. Linocut.jpg, Ethel Spowers, ''Merchants, Port Said'', 1932, linocut. Gift of Rex Nan Kivell, 1953.

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...

(1953/2/135) File:Ethel Spowers. Harvest, 1932. Linocut.jpg, Ethel Spowers, ''Harvest'', 1932, linocut. Gift of Rex Nan Kivell, 1953.

(1953/2/134) File:Ethel Spowers. Swings, 1932. Linocut.jpg, Ethel Spowers, ''Swings'', 1932, linocut. Gift of Rex Nan Kivell, 1953.

(1953-0003-326) File:Ethel Spowers. The Lonely Farm, 1933. Linocut.jpg, Ethel Spowers, ''The Lonely Farm'', 1933, linocut. Gift of Rex Nan Kivell, 1953.

(1953/2/137) File:Ethel Spowers. The giant stride, 1933. Linocut.jpg, Ethel Spowers, ''The giant stride'', 1933, linocut. Gift of Rex Nan Kivell, 1953.

(1953-0003-325) File:Ethel Spowers - Football, 1936.jpg, Ethel Spowers, ''Football'', 1936, linocut.

File:Ethel Spowers. Children’s hoops, 1936. Linocut.jpg, Ethel Spowers, ''Children’s hoops'', 1936, linocut. Gift of Rex Nan Kivell, 1953.

(1953-0003-329)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spowers, Ethel 1890 births 1947 deaths Australian women artists Alumni of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art People educated at Melbourne Girls Grammar Australian printmakers Color engravers People from South Yarra, Victoria People from Toorak, Victoria Artists from Melbourne National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni 20th-century engravers 20th-century Australian artists Linocut artists