Ursula Ridley Walker

Ursula Ridley Walker (1883 – 1969)

Ursula Ridley Walker was a close friend of the Leviny family (Ursula was the same age as Hilda). She is a little known Australian woman artist who was working in many artistic fields during the first part of the twentieth century. Buda holds the largest public collection of Walker’s works in Australia.

Born in Hobart, Tasmania. The Walkers were a very prominent Quaker family.

She studied under Ben Sheppard, Mildred Lovett (who is also in the Buda Collection) and others at Technical School Hobart 1903-09 going on to teach drawing in Hobart at different locations 1913-1917.

Ursula joined the Volunteer Aid Detachment (VAD) in Hobart and possibly nursed in Castlemaine arriving late 1917 (Poidevin, 2005). An article in the Castlemaine Mail from 4 October 1917 shows she was accepted as a trainee at Castlemaine Hospital, along with three other applicants.

While in Castlemaine she met the Leviny girls, and they became friends – particularly Kate. The friendship was such that Ursula Ridley Walker is a signatory to Bertha Leviny’s will.

Walker moved to Sydney in the early 1920s and worked as a freelance commercial artist illustrating sale catalogues for David Jones and Anthony Hordern’s department stores while working on her own linocuts. In 1922 she sold hand-painted calendars through John Sands Ltd Sydney.

Kate came up to Sydney in 1925 and stayed with Walker in her aunt’s house in Chatswood. (Zilles 2020) They would have participated in the vibrant art scene there, “doing” the galleries and visiting exhibitions.

Kate’s friendship with Ursula Ridley-Walker

Being an artist, with networks to other Tasmanian artists such as Mildred Lovett and Olive Pink, strongly influenced Kate Leviny’s tastes and sharpened her eye for an appreciation of art. This, coupled with the opportunity to visit galleries and see what contemporary artists (particularly women such as Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor etc.) were producing in the vibrant Sydney art-scene, meant that Kate made astute and well informed decisions when buying artworks.

A keen interest in printmakers, particularly the work of many young women artists involved in this increasingly popular art form, was consolidated. Prints by Margaret Preston, Maude Sherwood and Mildred Lovett were purchased from the Grosvenor and Macquarie Galleries around this time. (Zilles 2020)

Walker’s beautiful portrait of Kate c1930s hangs in the Music room which was Kate’s bedroom at the end of her life. (Kate died 1963)

1930s: Walker worked as an architectural drafter with Hutchinson & Walker (Ursula’s brother) in Hobart. Her brother helped design parts of the Friends School in Hobart as well as many other buildings both commercial and private.

1931: studied architectural composition and historical architecture at Hobart Tech College. (Walker, NA)

Works in Buda Collection

Buda holds multiples of Ridley Walker’s work – two watercolours, two linocuts and two woodcuts. Buda held an exhibition of her works in the early 2000’s and her nephew Jim Walker (Bernard Burcham Ridley Walker) very kindly donated other examples of her works along with two brooches made by Ursula Ridley Walker.

– Hydrangea c1925 RN 2513 (hand coloured linocut) (Also held in the National Gallery of Australia).

– Lilli-Pilli + Red berries c1925 RN 4140 (linocut-hand coloured)

– White Cockatoo c1925 RN? (linocut-coloured)

– Coral Tree c1925 RN 4142 (hand coloured woodcut) (Also held in the NGA)

– Hibiscus c1925 RN 3164 (hand coloured linocut) (Also held in the NGA)

– Fisherman’s Bay – Port Kembla c 1925 (woodcut-coloured) RN 3165

– Hill 60 – Port Kembla c1925 (hand coloured woodcut) RN 3163 (Also held in the NGA)

– Farmyard Scene n.d c1920 Watercolour RN 3182

– Untitled Garden with Rotunda n.d c1920 Watercolour RN 3216

– Portrait of Kate c1930 RN 3163 Oil on board by Ursula Ridley Walker