Design and Art Australia Online

painter, craftworker and poet, was born in Campbelltown, NSW, seventh of the 13 children of Rosalie Ada Pettingell and William James Wilshire, a son of Catherine Maria, née Robertson, and artist William Pitt Wilshire . Nothing is known of any early art training, but she presumably had lessons from her grandfather. Even so, an attributed early view of the Hawkesbury River dated '1873’ in pencil verso seems far too accomplished for a seven-year-old (1893?). By 1903, however, she was giving her occupation as 'artist’ on the electoral rolls, her address being the family home 'Idle-a-While’ at Cronulla, where she lived until 1916, then at 'Pelagos’, Ewos Parade, Cronulla until her death.

The first known review of Rosie’s art appeared in The Ladies’ Own Paper on 1 July 1905 (12-13) – a commentary on her work in 'The Cronulla Exhibition’ held at Vickery’s Chambers, 76 Pitt Street, Sydney. The exhibition was the work of five Cronulla women: Mrs Otho Windsor, Mrs and Miss Board and the Misses Rosie and Hero Wilshire. All were members of the Wilshire family. Mrs Otho Windsor was Rosie’s eldest sister Ada Pitt Ripley Wilshire (d.14 January 1921), who ran the Museum at Cronulla that comprised a large and varied collection of shells. First exhibited in a building near Shelley Beach, Ada later moved the collection to 'Lawna’, about a block from Ewos Parade, where she and another Wilshire sister, Hero (a flower painter), lived. At Ada’s death the collection was said to have numbered six million shells of some 50,000 varieties, many from Cronulla, valued at £25,000. Mrs Board was Rosie’s widowed sister Rosalie May Wilshire who had married Clarence W. Board (d.1891) at St Andrews Summer Hill on 8 September 1888, and Miss Board was obviously their daughter.

Although Rosie showed 'some very fine oil paintings … many of which were sold at highly satisfactory prices’ (Merrillees notes that an oil painting of pippies in her oeuvre ), the Cronulla Exhibition chiefly consisted of shellwork articles of all descriptions, e.g. drapes for mantels, walls, tables &c. adorned with wonderful designs in shells. The Sydney Mail of 12 February 1906 illustrated 'A portiere painted by Miss R. Wilshire, and bordered by roses in shells’. On 19 February 1908 (p.487), the Sydney Mail illustrated an extravagant 'Bridal Bouquet of Cronulla Shells’.

As well as painting NSW landscapes and occasional still-life subjects in oil and watercolour and working with shells, Rosie designed book covers and did illustrations. Most of her paintings were oil on board views of the countryside in and around Cronulla but also included scenery at the picturesque Bulli Pass south of Cronulla, the Wollondilly River in the Great Dividing Range to the southwest and the Colo River in the Blue Mountains north of Kurrajong. In 1911 W.C. Penfold of Sydney published her book of poems, From Cronulla , illustrated with photographs of her paintings. It was dedicated to 'The Seekers’ – a reference to the Sydney Theosophists, of which she was at least a fellow traveller. (Her brother Hector was a member of the Theosophical Society, joining in 1912.) One of her poems is entitled 'Voice of Divine Guide to One About to Reincarnate’ and there is a reference in The Seeker 2 (March 1918) to a meeting of the Theosophical Society at Kirribilli in September 1918 when 'Miss Wilshire’ – evidently Rosie – was to read a paper on 'Arnold Bennett’s Book “The Glimpse”’. She was also a vegetarian.

Always defining herself as an artist (or 'artiste’), Rosie was said by the family to have marketed her paintings through one or more of Sydney’s department stores.

Rosie Wilshire, who never married, died after a year’s illness with carcinoma of the liver in St Luke’s Private Hospital on 7 July 1921, aged 54. Wilshire family headstones in the Church of England section of Woronora Cemetery include one in her memory. It gives her date of her birth as 1866.

Writers:

Kerr, Joan

Date written:

2011

Last updated:

2011