One of six siblings, Carola (Ola) Cohn was born to Julius Cohn and Sarah Helen Snowball in Bendigo. Both parents were born in Australia: Ola's maternal grandparents arrived from England in 1850, and her paternal grandparents from Denmark in 1852. Ola was educated at Girton College, Bendigo, but studied drawing and sculpture at the Bendigo School of Mines. She went on to study at Swinburne Technical College in Melbourne, and finally, at the Royal College of Art in London. Exhibitions of her work were held all over Australia as well as in London, Paris and Glasgow. In 1930 she received a request from the office of H.R.H The Prince of Wales for a piece of her work to be part of an exhibition given in aid of the British Legion. Years later a faded newspaper clipping reads: 'When still a child she saw that most people were content to live, die and be forgotten. Her determination to become a sculptor, and that in this profession her work and memory would endure, commenced at the age of seven when she first modelled figures in wet sand'.

Ola Cohn was the first Australian sculptor to carve large commissions free-hand in stone. A pioneer of modernist sculpture in this country, her early work generated terrific controversy when it was exhibited in Melbourne in 1931. Over the course of her career, however, Cohn completed numerous commissions in Australia including two sandstone figures for the Royal Hobart Hospital, a six foot lime-stone Pioneer Women's Memorial for Adelaide's Garden of Remembrance and the bronze entitled 'Comedy'. In 1952 she received the Crouch Prize in Ballarat - the first and only sculptor to receive the honour - for her wood carving, Abraham. Cohn was perhaps most famous for carving The Fairies' Tree in the Fitzroy Gardens between 1931-34. This was a gift to the children of Melbourne, and she received no payment for the work.

Ola Cohn was a central figure in the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, hosting life drawing classes every Friday night at her studio and serving as president of the Society for many years. She joined the Lyceum Club, and the Arts, Press and Letters Committee for the National Council of Women.

The extent of Cohn's philanthropic activity is difficult to assess. One newspaper described her as a 'charity worker', but she is unlikely to have been given honorary life membership of the Royal Children's Hospital simply because she was weaving scarves for charity - which she was indeed doing. Her extensive archives give little clue as to what kind of financial assistance she was able to provide, but certainly she opened her famous studio from time to time to raise money for a particular cause. In this way she raised £400 in aid of the Red Cross, the Comforts Fund and Food for Britain during WWII. She also held art classes for soldiers recovering from injury. Cohn assisted appeals for the Children's Hospital, Save the Children's Fund, Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Heart Foundation, The Cultural Centre Melbourne, and Animal Relief.

Cohn's greatest philanthropic gesture was her bequest to the Council of Adult Education. To this body she left her home and studio at 41 Gipps Street, East Melbourne and a collection of her works, with the idea that it would become a sculpture school. The bequest was valued at just under £1 million. Poor financial management on the part of the CAE led to an attempt to sell the property, but this was thwarted by a legal battle headed by Cohn's niece Helen Bruinier. It is now known as the Ola Cohn Memorial Centre.

Ola Cohn was married at the age of 61 to her friend Herbert John Green, a retired Victorian Government Printer. She was appointed a Member of the British Empire for her work in the service of art, especially sculpture, on 1 January 1965.

Events

1910 - 1919

Attended art classes at the Bendigo School of Mines

1920 - 1925

Studied at Swinburne Technical College, Melbourne

1921

Member of the Victorian Art Society

1922 - 1964

Member of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors

1926

Carved Head of a Virgin, now in the National Gallery of Victoria, which was considered very modern in Australia at the time

1926

Attended the Royal College of Art, London where her lecturers included Henry Moore for sculpture

1928

Awarded a Royal College of Art, London free studentship

1929

Became an associate of the Royal College of Art, London

1930

Established a studio at 9 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria

1931 - 1934

Carved The Fairies' Tree in the Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne

March 1931

Held an exhibition of her overseas work

1933

Taught art at Geelong Church of England Grammar School

1937

Moved to 41 Gipps Street, East Melbourne where she made her studio a centre for artists

1938

Produced two seven-foot (2.1m) sandstone figures, representing Science and Humanity, for the Royal Hobart Hospital, Tasmania

1939

Executed 19 panels for the Mutual Life and Citizens Building, Sydney New South Wales - 14 were designed by Murray Griffen

1940 - 1941

Carved the limestone Pioneer Woman memorial statue, Adelaide

1940 - 1954

Part-time lecturer in art at the Melbourne Kindergarten Teacher's College

1948

Won the Roman Catholic Diocesan Centenary Prize in Melbourne

1948 - 1964

President of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors

1949 - 1951

Travelled to Europe and Iceland

1952

Won the Crouch Prize - the first time it had been won by a sculptor - for a wood carving

6 May 1953

Married Herbert John Green, retired government printer

1 January 1964

Appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services rendered in the service of art, especially sculpture

Sources used to compile this entry: Alexander, Joseph A (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1962, 17 edn, Colorgravure Publications, Melbourne, 1962, 960 pp; Kerr, Joan (ed.), Heritage : the national women's art book, 500 works by 500 Australian women artists from colonial times to 1955, Craftsman House, Roseville East, NSW, 1995, 483 pp; Lemon, Barbara, 'In Her Gift: Activism and Altruism in Australian Women's Philanthropy, 1880-2005', PhD thesis, School of Historical Studies, University of Melbourne, 2008; Scarlett, Ken, 'Cohn, Carola (1892 - 1964)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, Australian National University, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080064b.htm; http://members.ozemail.com.au/~scsiac/ accessed 2002-03-06.