family portrait of four generations
Agnus Arnot, Dr Alice Barber, Margaret Barber and Margaret Mclean, Victoria, Australia circa 1900 believed to be taken by Lorraine Barber
This image, which depicts 4 generations in a family portrait is integral to a creative body of work I am constructing to tell a story of a matriarchal ancestral legacy. I am pursuing the lives of these women, particularity my patriarchal grandmother, Ethel Irene Reynolds who is not yet born when this image was taken. My grandmother Ethel was an artist/educator, who was classical trained within the disciplines of life drawing, drafting, painting and sculpting. I am in the process of researching her life and the context of her practice to re-present the work she made for a new computational audience, you!
I believe this image was taken in Malvern, Victoria at 10 Seymour Avenue, Armadale Victoria, Australia circa 1900
The baby is Margaret Barber, my great aunt and sister to my grandmother Ethel.
Margaret was instrumental in the penning of The Barber Family Chronicles by Helen Carnegie ( link below) which is an unpublished recount that outlines a families colonial foothold in early Melbourne…. also a women’s story.
To the left of Margaret Barber is her mother, Dr Alice Barber.
She is remembered in the Dr Alice Barber Memorial speech and award presented at Melbourne University each year.
https://scholarships.unimelb.edu.au/awards/alice-barber-memorial#eligibility
On the right, Alice's mother (my great, great grandmother ) Margaret Mclean, who amongst other significant female advocacy efforts was the first signatory on the Monster Petition presented to the Victorian parliament in 1891.
you can check Margaret Mclean out at
https://www.womenaustralia.info/entries/mclean-margaret/
And at the helm of this image is what my family refers to as the Burri Gran - Agnus Arnot a Gaelic speaking Scottish immigrant who reportable had the second sight and had a premonition that stopped the family from travelling on the Loch Ard sailing ship that then sunk on route to Melbourne and is now memorialised in the naming of the Loch Art Gorge on Victorias western coast line ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ard_(ship)
