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illustrator, cartoonist, lithographer, lawyer, clergyman and journalist, was born in Southgate, London to a Dutch father and was educated in Britain and Holland. Before migrating to Australia he was a missionary to the French community in London. D’Emden came to Hobart Town on board the Columbus in June 1852, accompanied by his wife Emma, née Young, and their child, and was immediately appointed Congregational minister at Richmond. He resigned in about 1854, 'believing himself called to a different sphere of usefulness’.

After working on the Mercury as a parliamentary reporter D’Emden become editor and publisher of the Colonial Times , a venture that led to bankruptcy on 15 April 1857 and to a nine months’ sentence for fraud in July. He was released from gaol in November 1857 at the direction of the Supreme Court, Commissioner Fielding Browne having agreed to the remission solely on the grounds of consideration for several persons, including the creditors, who had signed a petition requesting leniency. D’Emden then petitioned the governor, urging that a bill be passed to protect anyone in his peculiar circumstances. Fox Young considered D’Emden’s 'disrespectful and unfounded imputation [against him] most reprehensible and declines to introduce a Bill … to meet Mr. D’Emden’s special case’, while D’Emden felt that because he was technically an undischarged bankrupt he could again be summonsed before the Insolvency Court and again suffer a too harsh sentence. However, another petition submitted in July 1858 was equally unsuccessful. D’Emden decided to become a lawyer.

In August 1858 he was articled to the Hobart Town solicitor C.B. Brewer. Having also served part of his articles with J.W. Graves he was called to the Bar on 19 February 1863. As well as following artistic and legal pursuits, D’Emden lectured, wrote and taught elocution. A lecture delivered at Launceston shortly after his arrival was described as 'a very able and eloquent one’. With the establishment of self-government in 1856 he wrote The Parliamentary Guide: A Manual for the Electors of Both Houses of the Parliament of Tasmania . His obituary also credits him with the authorship of two plays, Willy O’Meara (an Irish comedy) and A Fenian Plot (farce), both produced at the Hobart Town Theatre Royal and probably also in Victoria. On 19 May 1867 the Launceston Examiner announced that D’Emden was composing 'an Irish Sensation Drama for Mr Conway Spiller’ to be produced in Melbourne.

D’Emden seems to have published most of his lithographic work with R.V. Hood in January-May 1861, including portraits of Lady Augusta Young (TMAG) after Letitia Davidson , the Rev. Dr Nicolson and the Rev. John Watson praised in the local press. The interdenominational magazine Tasmanian Messenger (1861) published three D’Emden lithographs, including a portrait of Rev. J. Downes. He also produced a two-colour lithograph of R.V. Hood himself (SLT) and a portrait of Rev. Henry Dowling (ML) from a photograph by G. Cherry (publication dates unknown). He exhibited two watercolours and an oil in the 1862-63 Hobart Town Art Treasures Exhibition.

From January to July 1867 D’Emden edited Hobart Town Punch , a satirical magazine to which he contributed a number of cartoons. James Backhouse Walker stated that between 12 January and 18 May 1867 D’Emden was Hobart Town Punch 's major illustrator and at least three cartoons are signed with his cypher. He was also associated with another short-lived, serio-comic monthly magazine, We .

In June 1872 D’Emden was admitted to the Hospital for the Insane at New Norfolk after suffering hallucinations. Described as 'an inordinate smoker, drank a good deal and said to have committed great venereal excesses’, he had dark hair, eyes and beard, a sallow complexion and defective vision. There appears to been a background of mental illness; his mother died in Hanwell Lunatic Asylum in England. After a period of treatment, at the latter stage of which he amused himself by drawing, he was discharged in October 1872 but re-admitted in November 1873. His condition gradually deteriorated and he died on 12 September 1875, leaving a widow and five children.

Writers:

Glover, Margaret

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011