Mary Harriet Gedye b. 1834

Also known as Mary Harriet Wintle
  • Artist (Painter)
Tasmanian born watercolourist, Gedye started exhibiting her works after moving to Sydney and marrying. Her works were sent to prestigious European exhibitions and competed against other familiar artists such as Conrad Martens. She earned high accolades for her work.
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watercolourist, was born in Hobart Town, second daughter of Samuel James Wintle and Mary Anne, née Magill. In 1839 she accompanied her parents to Sydney where, reputedly aged seven, she began drawing lessons with 'a French lady artist, Madame Romanson [ Romansson ]’ – according to her obituary – then with Conrad Martens (according to family tradition). In 1851 Mary Harriet Wintle married Charles T. Gedye of Eastbourne, Darling Point, Sydney and all surviving works date from after her marriage. The earliest is a Tasmanian subject done about 1854; a watercolour heightened with white and gum arabic of an Australian coastal scene dated 1861 was offered at Christie’s Melbourne on 29 April 1997 (lot 55); while On the Lane Cove , another watercolour (Mitchell Library), is dated December 1862. In 1866, when the Gedyes were living at Lurlei, Woollahra, Mary Harriet showed View from Mount Bowen, South Kurrajong, New South Wales at the Sydney exhibition preceding the Paris Universal Exhibition. Conrad Martens and F.C. Terry were awarded the prizes of £30 and £20 respectively, but the secretary to the commissioners wrote to Mrs Gedye 'to convey to you the very high opinion generally entertained by them of your water-colour painting…[and] the Commissioners regret their inability to testify their appreciation more substantially than by mere words’. The landscape was exhibited in Paris the following year. In 1870 she contributed The Gap, Kurrajong to the Sydney Intercolonial Exhibition and was awarded a bronze medal. A number of her works, mainly views of the Blue Mountains, were lent to this exhibition by her husband. She exhibited with the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and was awarded a prize for Govett’s Waterfall .

Mary Harriet Gedye died at Eastbourne on 31 January 1876, survived by three daughters. The Hobart Town Mercury published an obituary that drew attention to her Tasmanian origins, gave an account of her career and commented: 'The colonial art world suffers a serious loss by her untimely death’.

Writers:
Staff Writer
Date written:
1992
Last updated:
1989

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