Australia Dancing - Haxton, Elaine (1909

Haxton, Elaine (1909 - 1999)

Beck, Richard: Portrait of Elaine Haxton, 1970s

Born in Melbourne, Haxton’s artistic training began in 1924 at the East Sydney Technical School under the guidance of Raynor Hoff. She later studied with Iain McNab, London (1932-1938) while working with the advertising firm J. Walter Thomson. She returned to Australia in 1939, by way of the U.S.A. and Mexico. In 1944 and 1945 Haxton visited Merauke and Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea as a manager and stage designer with an army entertainment party headed by Dutch dancer Darya Collin. Later in 1945 Haxton travelled to New York where she spent time at the New School of Theatre Design.

Although maintaining a diverse artistic output as a painter, printmaker, muralist, and book illustrator, she was particularly well known as a set and costume designer. Her work for the performing arts has ranged across the field, including work for the theatre, musical comedy, opera and ballet. Haxton designed costumes and sets for a number of ballet works, including Coppelia for Ballet Guild; Eleonore Treiber’s Ballet Academy, Valrene Tweedie’s Wakooka and Laurel Martyn’s Sigrid for the Elizabethan Opera Ballet Company’s inaugural 1957 season; Los Tres Diabolos (1954), The Nutcracker (Casse Noisette) (1955), and Journey to the Moon (1960) for the Borovansky Ballet; and Parades (1962) and The Cats (1962) for the Paul Grinwis Ballet.

Research Materials

Ephemera

Other resources

Find more about Haxton, Elaine in:

Internet - Google
Pictures - Picture Australia