May Vale

Biography Vale was born in Ballarat, the daughter of the Hon. W.M.K. Vale, on 18 November 1862.

Training Vale's family moved to Melbourne 1872 then to London, England in 1874, where Vale was educated at the South Kensington School (Royal College of Art) in London.

During 1879-1889, after returning to Melbourne, she attended the National Gallery Art Schools, Student colleagues at the school included Jane Sutherland and Clara Southern.

Australia Back in Melbourne where her address in the 1890s was "Mayfield", Church Street, Abbotsford, Vale exhibited with the Victorian Artists Society in nearby East Melbourne from 1892. In 1893 opened a studio at 119 Swanston Street where she gave art lessons and worked as a commissioned portrait painter. and she also joined the Yarra Sculptors' Society. At the Society of Artists Exhibition, Sydney in 1919 she displayed enamelware brooches in techniques learned at the Chelsea Polytechnic.

Style Throughout her life Vale exhibited at venues including the Victorian Artists Society, the Women's Art Club, the Athenaeum,

Collections

National Gallery of Victoria Victorian Artists Society

Gallery