sketcher, was born in Sydney, one of the children of William James Dumaresq, a brother of Henry , Eliza and Edward Dumaresq, and his wife Christiana Susan, a sister of Fanny Macleay . The family lived at Tivoli, Rose Bay, and probably most of them sketched (her father’s drawing abilities were mentioned in 1829). Susan’s sketchbook view, Newcastle, Australia (ML), was apparently drawn about 1850, not long after she had taken lessons from Conrad Martens with two other 'Misses Dumaresq’. It is very much in Martens’ style.
On 12 October 1859 Susan Dumaresq married Louis Hope, the seventh son of the Earl of Hopetoun, and went to live in Queensland. There her husband developed some of the first sugar plantations in Australia with the help of South Pacific Islander labour: at Ormiston (Cleveland, near Brisbane), on the Coomera River (Hope Island) and at Kilcoy. Ormiston House at Cleveland, where the family lived, still stands. Susan apparently continued to sketch after her marriage. Attributed to her by descendants are a pair of unsigned and undated watercolours, apparently of Sydney houses, one – perhaps of Tivoli (Historic Houses Trust) – being thought to date from the 1860s. No Queensland views are known. The Hopes departed for England in 1882 and settled at The Knowle, Hazelwood, Derbyshire. Survived by three sons and five daughters, Louis died in 1894, Susan on 4 December 1901.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
