Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

lamplight and an open hearth must have made this and other dinners in the bush amazing experiences for the English visitors. Our camp, Rainmore, painted on 12 February 1884, again features Neville- Rolfe's notations — 'Woolly brings the quarts of water for tea, Karl makes johnny cakes, Kunie dries her hat, wet with dew [and] HJ sketches the scene'. Cattle graze nearby, while kangaroos bound through the background undergrowth. Neville- Rolfe's affinity for the environment is apparent, through the deft and spontaneous brushstrokes which render the surrounding countryside. For her, these are evocative interpretations of a country far from the reality of her life and her home. Other works of particular historical interest include Thursday Island, painted in 1883, the year Neville-Rolfe arrived in Australia, and Houses o f Parliament, Brisbane 1885, painted before, or during, her embarkation. Over one hundred years later, these fresh, light-filled watercolours reinforce her talent for immediacy and piquant detail and encapsulate for the contemporary viewer a perception of another time and place. Neville-Rolfe was able to sustain her interest in painting and drawing throughout her relatively independent 'spinsterhood'. In April 1885, however, she returned to England to marry Holcombe Ingleby, raise a family and resume her life as a member of the English aristocracy. Her family background is borne out by a letter from her granddaughter, describing the Australian watercolours being 'dug out' from an old chest by Harriet's son Clement Ingleby, then framed and hung at Sedgeford Hall, 'all the way down from the front hall right through to the green baize door which heralded the start of the servants' quarters'. Her granddaughter recalls: I was only nine when my grandmother died, I just remember her as the loveliest grandmother ever — I don't remember her as an artist, just as someone who sang and played with us endlessly and was a very, very loving and kind element... I don't remember her painting at all during my childhood and we lived with her and my grandfather until he died, when I was aged six.15 Harriet Jane Neville-Rolfe Lanark Outstation 1884 Watercolour over pencil on wove paper 22.8x30.5cm Gift of the artist's son in her memory 1964 Queensland Art Gallery Harriet Jane Neville-Rolfe Our camp, Rainmore 1884 Watercolour over pencil on wove paper 15.1X22.8cm Gift of the artist's son in her memory 1964 Queensland Art Gallery Harriet Jane Neville-Rolfe Brumby Jack's camp, Rainmore 1884 Watercolour over pencil on wove paper 17.7x25.3cm Gift of the artist's son in her memory 1964 Queensland Art Gallery 50 BROUGHT TO LIGHT: Australian Art 1850-1965