Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/grace-burns

Birth Place

Balmain, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Biography

illustrator and cartoonist, regularly appeared in the Bulletin and Lone Hand from c.1911 to the early 1930s. Her Lone Hand work includes a one-off strip Ferry Passengers (about different passengers at different times of day, by 'Grace Burn’ [ sic ]) 9 (October 1911), 562, and Renouncing the Vanities (part of a story on Spring Hats illustrated by 'G. Burns’) 10 (February 1912), 322. Her Bulletin cartoons were far more numerous. They include: The Solution (re temperance) 19 January 1911, 10; Love Versus Pity : 'FIRST LADY: “Whom did you vote for?”/ SECOND LADY: “Oh, dear, I WAS worried! The Liberal was such a darling; but he has money, and the poor Labor man has six children”’ 23 March 1911, 18; The Emancipation of Woman . '“Hurrah! Out of hobbles into trousers”’ (re oriental dress) 27 April 1911, 10; The Urgency of City Reconstruction (re large size of ladies’ hats) 8 June 1911, 11; Where Woman Makes Her Presence Felt . 'Mrs Suburbia after a day’s shopping catches the same train as the business man-and pays her penny fare’ (despite gigantic hat) 31 August 1911, 10; The Pride of the Family 21 September 1911, 11; Her First Cigarette (bilious young thing) 25 January 1912, 11; The Comforter . 'ARTIST: “I wish I had never taken up art.”/ SHE: “Well, there is no direct evidence that you have, is there?”’ 27 June 1912, 10; Cheap Labor (gentry objecting to notice asking everyone to keep streets clean) 24 October 1912, 13; (almost Arthur Rackham drawing style) After the Accident. 'WIFEY (as hubby hits the ground): “There! How careless of you, John! Didn’t I tell you I had on my new hat?”’ (aeroplane accident) 5 February 1914, 22; Comparisons . '“Dear me! What a hideous costume those poor natives wear! Thank Heaven I live in a civilised country”’ (black and white women in almost identical outfits) 4 June 1914, 11; Impudent Hussies (re women threatened by clergyman “Wowser” with Hell for smoking), 'That’s all right; we’ll never be short of a light!’ 12 December 1914, 20; The Temptation of a Modern St Anthony (surrounded by girls) 12 December 1914, 28; A Christmas Card . 'War conducts the orchestra’ 24 December 1914, 11; (clothes) 27 May 1915, 10; His Place in the Sun (re man in swimsuit sleeping on an Australian beach while three destroyers approach) 16 May 1918, 13; 'Your friend is too sweet for words …’ Mitchell Library [ML] original, annotated published 17 October 1918; The Evolution of the Office Girl (in 1915, 1918 & 1922), published 23 February 1922, 18; The Debutante Old and New. '(1) When a girl left school, (2) she used to “put up” her hair and lengthen her skirt. (3) Now she bobs her hair and shortens her skirt’ (3 figures again, like Evolution ) 9 March 1922, 18; How Santa Claus Came (chimney labelled Australia, Santa is a beardless Jap with sack labelled 'Made in Japan’) 30 December 1920, 9; The Girl Who Got the Job c.1922 (large Bulletin original ML 'sent to etcher 31/8/22’: reprinted Heritage 'War’ chapter); (Pierrot and Pierrette) 29 January 1926, 36; Filled the Bill c.1924 (Bulletin original ML Px*D447), published 21 January 1926, 17; (2 young women dressing) No Comfort In It . '“Can you live within your income?”/ “Yes. But I’m terribly overcrowded”’ 13 January 1927, 17; The Higher Mathematics (a woman’s age) 29 December 1927, 34; Nursed it when it was a baby 2 July 1930; (women in boudoir, one at mirror) PETER AND PAUL . '“How do you mean her love is Apostolic?”/ “Why, it palls as his cash peters out!”’ 21 September 1932; (dark realism in 2 frames, one showing three shabby bent men outside unemployment bureau, the other rich couples living it up) THE UNEMPLOYED , 3 February 1932. On the verso of the Bulletin original Filled the Bill c.1924 (ML Px*D447), published 21 January 1926, 17, is a glued-on joke signed 'Sucre’, who was paid for the gag. It’s better than the gag 'Sucre’ (M. S.(?) Nally, 297 New South Head Road, Edgecliff) did for Betty Paterson (et al.). More significantly, almost obliterated on the back is the address 'Mrs Syd Sullivan, Tryon Road, Lindfield’. Burns married Syd Sullivan , another cartoonist working in quite a different in style, in Mosman, NSW, in 1912. Grace Burns is included in c.1930s list of Bulletin artists (ML Px*D557 pt 5, '4’). The Edward Burns contributing cartoons to Scribner’s (NY) in 1930s might have been a pseudonym for Burns, or a mistake by Moore. Writers: Kerr, Joan Date written: 1995 Last updated: 1992

Born

b. 1883

Summary

Early 20th century Bulletin cartoonist.

Gender

Female

Died

1975

Age at death

92