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The Outsider – A Portrait of Ursula Hoff

Ursula Hoff 1909–2005 was a German Jewish scholar who migrated to Melbourne in 1939. She was the first individual with professional qualifications in art history and curatorship to be employed in an art gallery or museum in Australia. Hoff made a distinguished contribution to the National Gallery of Victoria, where she worked for thirty years, bringing a unique combination of scholarship and a 'good eye'. This study offers a fascinating glimpse of Australian culture as it changed in the post-war years. Her diaries also give a rare inside account of the National Gallery and the power struggles that have taken place over acquisitions. Above all, it is a tribute to Australia's enrichment from migrations that occurred as a result of fascism's impact on Europe.