Adelaide Perry (1891–1973) started her artistic career at the National Gallery School with Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin in 1914. She won the National Gallery of Victoria Travelling Scholarship in 1918 and later exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais in Paris, and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in London after World War 1. Perry then founded the Chelsea Art School in Sydney and taught drawing, printmaking, and painting at the Sydney Art School in the 1930s with Julian Ashton and Thea Proctor. Perry later taught at PLC Sydney starting in 1930 and retired in 1962. Perry's teaching emphasized working en plein air and from life, which is evident in her paintings, drawings, and prints now held in major collections. The Adelaide Perry Gallery opened in 2001 to honor Perry's contribution to PLC Sydney, and the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, a $25,000 acquisitive award, celebrates Perry's commitment to art education and her ongoing connection with the art world.
