{{Short description|Australian artist (1877–1921)}} {{Use Australian English|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata = ALL|suppressfields=restingplace }}

'''Gustave Adrian Barnes''' (9 May 1877 – 14 March 1921) was an Australian art curator, painter, arts administrator and violinist.

== Early life and education == Barnes was born in 1877 in London, England.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gustav Barnes |url=https://searchthecollection.nga.gov.au/artist/16520/gustav-barnes |website=National Gallery of Australia}}</ref><ref name="printsandprintmaking">{{Cite web |last=Printmaking |first=Prints and |title=Gustave Adrian Barnes |url=https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/artists/11007/ |access-date=2026-04-05 |website=www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au |language=en}}</ref> He emigrated to Australia as a child but returned to England later in life to study violin and art at the Royal College of Art, London.<ref name=":0" /> His father was a designer and plaster modeller with Barnes and Neate where Barnes began his artistic training.<ref name=":1" /> Barnes was active in the drawing and painting circles of Adelaide.

== Career == Barnes spent two summers painting and studying in Fifeshire, Scotland, alongside fellow South Australian painter, Hans Heysen.<ref name=":1">{{cite news |date=3 September 1921 |title=GUSTAVE BARNES. |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15943364 |accessdate=5 April 2026 |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |location=New South Wales, Australia |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia |issue=26,104}}</ref> Heysen was especially complimentary of Barnes' works, ''The Quarry''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gustave Barnes, The Quarry, 1921 |url=https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/collection-publications/collection/works/the-quarry/30184/ |access-date=2026-04-05 |website=The Art Gallery of South Australia |language=en}}</ref> and ''The Pipes of Pan,'' noting that Barnes' use of colour had becoming richer and more balanced over the years.<ref name=":1" />

For a time Barnes was employed as a designer, painter and modeller for the Doulton & Co.<ref name=":1" /> whilst also continuing to study painting at night classes.

Barnes returned to Australia when his father died and took over his father's business.<ref name=":1" /> He was later employed by the Board of Governors of the South Australian Public Library, Museum, and Art Gallery as an arts administrator between 1915 and 1918.<ref>{{cite news |date=19 March 1921 |title=NATIONAL GALLERY CURATOR. |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article165645937 |accessdate=5 April 2026 |newspaper=Observer |location=South Australia |page=31 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=LXXVIII |issue=5851}}</ref>

From 1918 to 1921, Barnes was promoted to curator of the National Gallery of South Australia.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Gustav Adrian Barnes |url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/gustav-adrian-barnes/biography/ |website=Design and Art Australia Online}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Life Summary - Gustave Adrian Barnes - People Australia |url=https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/lifesummary/barnes-gustave-adrian-5137 |access-date=2026-04-05 |website=peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au}}</ref>

He died in Adelaide, South Australia on 14 March 1921,<ref name="printsandprintmaking"/> and is buried at Payneham Cemetery, Adelaide.<ref>{{Citation |last=Benko |first=Nancy |title=Gustave Adrian Barnes (1877–1921) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barnes-gustave-adrian-5137 |access-date=2026-04-05 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref>

His work was exhibited posthumously at the South Australia Society of Arts Gallery, in the Institute Building on North Terrace only weeks after his death. It was opened by the Governor of South Australia, Sir Archibald Weigall.<ref>{{cite news |date=5 April 1921 |title=GUSTAVE BARNES'S PICTURES. |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63042756 |accessdate=5 April 2026 |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=LXXXVI |issue=25,216}}</ref>

==Select works== <gallery mode="packed"> File:Gustav Adrian Barnes - 0f242d7aff.jpg|''Bush Scene'', 1920, Watercolour. File:Sheep in field - painting by Gustave A Barnes(GN02445).jpg|''Sheep in field'', 1908, glass negative. File:Gustav Adrian Barnes - 2eb472ea0f.jpg|''Enchanted Ground Near Kensington Gardens,'' oil on canvassed board, 1922 File:Gustav Adrian Barnes - 70b44ecb57.jpg|''untitled windmill scene'', 1907. </gallery>

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Gustav Adrian Barnes}}{{Authority control}}

Category:20th-century Australian painters Category:Australian art curators Category:Australian male painters Category:1877 births Category:1921 deaths Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art Category:Artists from the London Borough of Islington