Barbara Hanrahan

Who is Barbara Hanrahan?

Barbara Hanrahan was an Australian artist, printmaker and writer whose work mostly revolved around the roles of and relationships between women.

Between 1957 and 1960 she studied towards a diploma in art teaching from Adelaide Teachers' College, while also taking classes at the South Australian School of Arts. In 1961, she won the Cornell Prize for painting. From 1963 to the early 1980s she lived mainly in England, first studying at the Central School of Art, London and then lecturing at the Falmouth and Portsmouth Colleges of Art. During this time she returned periodically to Adelaide to teach at the South Australian School of Art and to organise her one woman exhibitions, and she eventually returned there to live. Her writing career began in 1973 with the publication of her novel The Scent of Eucalyptus and her last work of fiction was Michael and Me and the Sun, published in 1992 after her death from cancer. Her edited diaries were published in 1998, revealing less than favourable comments about many of her contemporaries. A biography by Annette Marion Stewart was published in the same year.