Design and Art Australia Online

painter and sketcher, was born on 3 January 1850 at Sedgeford Hall, the Dower House of Heacham Hall, Norfolk, fourth of the nine children of Charles Fawcett Neville-Rolfe and Martha Holt, née Chapman. She was educated by a governess and learnt Latin from the local vicar. 1861-63 was spent in Italy with her family, where her mother died. Her father later remarried. Harriet Jane found her stepmother unsympathetic and escaped to London, where she attended the Slade, probably from its opening in 1871. In 1874 she moved to Paris and studied at L’Ecole Nationale de Dessin de Jeunes Filles (1874-77), winning bronze medals in its student 'concours de place’. A first-prize charcoal head of a young woman (1874) and a full-length female figure drawing (1876), are held in private collection.

'HJ’ (as she signed her work) remained in Paris—where she converted to Roman Catholicism—until 1883, then left to visit her sister and brother-in-law, Margaret and Charles Torrey, brothers Charles (Carl) and Arthur and Carl’s wife, Kunigunda (Kunie), who were all living on a cattle station in central-west Queensland. During the year and a half she spent at Alpha, HJ depicted with verve most of the activities associated with the property: drafting the cows, branding the cattle, breaking in the horses, the Alpha and Frankfield mailmen and the carriers waiting for the beef. She went camping ( Alpha Creek at Rainmore 11 February 1884, 'the eve of our first night in the bush’), kangaroo hunting and visited the outstations: Lanark, Frankfield and Woltang.

Several watercolours were inspired by the bright light and bleached colours of the Queensland bush; others such as Brumby Jack’s Camp Rainmore (August 1884), showing Mr Thomas making Johnny cakes while HJ, as usual, is sketching, contribute to a lively visual narrative. She also painted flowers, birds, animals and insects. In 1884 she accompanied Kunie to Clermont for the birth of Clive, painting her new-born nephew in the arms of Mrs Mackintosh as well as the nearby gold diggings. She made portraits of the Alpha Aboriginal women; Luke and Iguana shows the lad who helped around the homestead; and Kong, the Chinese cook, appears in several of her watercolours.

In April 1885 HJ sketched Parliament House, Brisbane, then embarked for England. Staying with her sister Mary at Park House, Heacham, she met Holcombe Ingleby. Henceforth sketching was rare, despite living in Naples and Marseilles immediately after they married at Kings Lynn Catholic Church on 27 October 1886. Helen was born on 17 August 1887 and Clement on 20 October 1888. Settling back in Norfolk, the Inglebys leased Heacham Hall from HJ’s eldest brother, Eustace, in 1893. In 1904 they moved into Sedgeford Hall.

Harriet Jane painted a few views of her homes and drew charcoal sketches of the Heacham servants. She did mural decorations in some family houses and, with her niece Ada, some ornamental work in the Heacham brickyard in the late 1890s. She organised 'creations’ for the first Heacham Carnival in 1900 and for the Sedgeford Summer Carnivals of 1905 (the first) and 1907-09 such as Ye Ancient Fayre and Pocahontas . In old age she is said to have decorated title pages of books for young family members. She died at Sedgeford Hall on 11 October 1928. In 1964 Clement Ingleby presented 84 of her Queensland watercolours to the Queensland Art Gallery. Others remain in private collection.

Writers:

Kerr, Joan

Date written:

1995

Last updated:

2011