Daphnis and Ganymede

Ex Libris: the printed image and the art of the book, 2010

In 1960 Barbara Hanrahan enrolled in Udo Sellbach’s evening printmaking classes at the South Australian School of Art. She found the process of printmaking captivating and it soon became the ‘most important’ thing in her life. Two of her early experiments in the medium, Daphnis and Ganymede and The Beloved, also reveal her love of literature, the subjects of each referencing two texts she had read as a young girl: The Affectionate Shepherd, by the renaissance author, Richard Barnfield and The Lost Traveller, written by Antonia White and published in 1950. Having lost her father as a young girl, Hanrahan was drawn, perhaps, to White’s portrayal of the intense relationship between Clara and her father in The Lost Traveller. However, The Beloved does not, unlike so many of Hanrahan’s other works, appear to be one based in experience.

The death of her grandmother in 1968 caused Hanrahan to begin writing. Her first book, The Scent of Eucalyptus, was a semi-autobiographical account of growing up with her mother, grandmother and great aunt in Thebarton. During her life, Hanrahan combined a literary and artistic career publishing thirteen novels and two collections of stories as well as continuing to create many prints.

Elspeth Pitt, Assistant Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs