Margaret Baskerville was born in North Melbourne in 1861. She studied at the VAA with C D Richardson, and the Royal College Of Art, London. She also undertook numerous travel studies in Europe.
In 1897 Baskerville began to study sculpture and subsequently became a founding member of the Yarra Sculptor’s Society. She was certainly Victoria’s first professional sculptor, if not the the first Australian professional.
Baskerville exhibited with the Yarra Sculptor’s Society, the VAS, the Women’s Art Club, and with the Arts And Crafts Society of Victoria.
Awards included the Student’s Prize For Drawing at the NGV school in 1897, and prizes at the 1907 Women’s Work Exhibition at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
Numerous private and public commissions include the Thomas Bent statue in Brighton, the James Cumming Memorial, Footscray (carved from a single block of marble), and the Edith Cavell memorial in St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne.
References:
A & S McCulloch The Encyclopedia Of Australian Art, Second Edition, pp 75.