painter, printmaker, illustrator, enamellist and art teacher, was born at Blackwood, near Adelaide; Gwen Barringer was her sister-in-law. Her art studies were undertaken under H.P. Gill and his staff at the South Australian School of Design and in private classes with Rosa Fiveash , Helen and Millicent Hambidge and Hans Heysen. Barringer won prizes at the Society of Arts Women’s Exhibition in Adelaide and at the subsequent Australian Women’s Work Exhibition in Melbourne in 1907. She was awarded a gold medal in the Fine Arts section of the 1910 Adelaide Exhibition as well as silver and bronze medals, a special prize and silver medal in the 'Women’s Work’ section. In 1911 she was elected a member of the Council of the Society of Arts.
After teaching drawing and painting in Adelaide from 1905 to 1911, Ethel Barringer travelled to England in 1912 to study at the Goldsmiths’ College – under Harold Speed, F. Marriott, W. Lee Hankey (who taught etching), A. Amor Fenn and Edmund J. Sullivan – and at the Sir John Cass Technical Institute. She also took classes at the London County Council’s Camberwell School and at the City and Guilds of London Technical Institute. By the end of her studies she was expert in a variety of new media, notably etching and enamelling. She also produced aquatints and etchings. On returning to Adelaide Barringer continued to work in a variety of media, but after 1921, when appointed to the teaching staff of the Adelaide School of Arts and Crafts (principal L. Howie), she became increasingly interested in etching. As well as making many etchings herself – which were exhibited interstate as well as in Adelaide – she purchased a large etching press for the School. The Adelaide News (11 February 1925) called it 'probably the largest etching press in any art school in the Commonwealth’; it made plates up to 28 × 40 inches (71.1 × 91.6 cm) possible.
Sadly, Ethel Barringer had the use of her press only from February to May 1925, when she suddenly died. Nevertheless, as her colleague Mary P. Harris stated, it was she who 'introduced the craft of etching into the curriculum’. Her estate provided funds for a prize and a scholarship in the etching class in her memory. A much later tribute from South Australian printmakers came from the noted artist Barbara Hanrahan (1939-1991), who produced an etching titled Dear Miss Ethel Barringer in 1975; a copy is in the Art Gallery of SA.
- Writers:
- Callaway, Anita
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 1992
