Barbara Tribe with her work 'Bacchanalia' 1934, at East Sydney Technical College

In 1930, after completing her two-year intermediate art course at East Sydney Technical College, Barbara Tribe was selected by sculptor Rayner Hoff to enter his three-year sculpture diploma course at the college. Produced after the course but while Tribe worked part-time teaching art at the college, 'Bacchanalia' 1934 was included in an exhibition of her plaster sculptures at Anthony Hordern's Fine Art Gallery. The exhibition was reviewed favourably in the press, and 'Bacchanalia' was singled out for its 'masterly feeling for cumulative design and rhythm'. Tribe left 'Bacchanalia' along with several other student works at the college for safekeeping when she travelled to London in 1935. Most of these works, including 'Bacchanalia' have since disappeared.