Dorothy Richmond - From Havelock North - Sarjeant Gallery

Dorothy Kate Richmond (12 September 1861 – 16 April 1935), known as Dolla Richmond, was a New Zealand

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

noted for her

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

paintings of natural plants and animals and panoramic landscapes.

Biography

The daughter of

James Crowe Richmond James Crowe Richmond (22 September 1822 – 19 January 1898) was a New Zealand politician, engineer, and an early painter in watercolours of the New Zealand landscape. Early life Richmond was born in London, England, the son of Christopher Ric ...

and Mary Smith, Dorothy Richmond was born on 12 September 1861 at Parnell, Auckland. She was the third of five children and her young childhood was unsettled. The family moved to Nelson in 1862 where her father had become the editor of '' The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle'' but moved to the Taranaki district after the sudden death of Dorothy's mother in 1865. Her father was often away from home and she and her siblings were farmed out to relatives before the family moved back to Nelson in around 1869. Richmond attended Miss Bell's Young Ladies' College in Nelson and her interest in art was encouraged by her father who passed on his love of drawing and painting to her. She was taken with her two elder siblings to Europe by her father in 1873 and continued her drawing lessons. She attended

Bedford College for Women Bedford College was in York Place after 1874 Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first higher education college for women in the United Kingdom. In 1900, it became a constituent of the University of London The University o ...

in London, and also attended the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

where she worked under

Alphonse Legros Alphonse Legros (8 May 1837 – 8 December 1911) was a French, later British, painter, etcher, sculptor, and medallist. He moved to London in 1863 and later took British citizenship. He was important as a teacher in the British etching rev ...

. By June 1880 her work gained her a Slade Scholarship. In the early 1880s she returned to New Zealand to keep house for her father before being appointed the art mistress at the newly opened

Nelson College for Girls , motto_translation = Loyalty, honesty and wisdom , type = State secondary, day and boarding , established = 1883; years ago , address = Trafalgar St , city = Nels ...

in 1883. Richmond exhibited with the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts from 1885 and then travelled to Europe and returning and forth and continuing to study and paint seriously. By 1890 she had become an artist member of the

New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts (also referred to as the Wellington Art Society) was founded in Wellington in July 1882 as The Fine Arts Association of New Zealand. Founding artists included painters William Beetham (first president of the Ass ...

and by 1896 was studying with James Nairn. She became financially independent after the death of her father in 1898 and she again travelled to Europe to paint. She met

Frances Hodgkins Frances Mary Hodgkins (28 April 1869 – 13 May 1947) was a New Zealand painter chiefly of landscape and still life, and for a short period was a designer of textiles. She was born and raised in New Zealand, but spent most of her working l ...

in 1901 and travelled with her in France and Italy before returning to New Zealand together in December 1903. Hodgkins described Richmond as "the dearest woman with the most beautiful face and expression. I am a lucky beggar to have her as a travelling companion."

Norman Garstin Norman Garstin (28 August 1847 – 22 June 1926) was an Irish artist, teacher, art critic and journalist associated with the Newlyn School of painters. After completing his studies in Antwerp and Paris, Garstin travelled around Europe and pa ...

painted Richmond's portrait in Europe in 1903, and the oil painting is in the Te Papa collection, and online. Richmond and Hodgkins remained close partners and rented a studio together in Bowen Street, Wellington where they also took on private pupils. Richmond keep the studio on after Hodgkins returned to Europe in 1906 and continued to develop her reputation as an art teacher. From around 1909 to 1924 she held classes at Fitzherbert Terrace School also known as the Samuel Marsden Collegiate School. Richmond was a Council Member of the

from 1904 and was honoured with a life membership in 1928. She never married and died in Wellington on 16 April 1935. File:D. K. Richmond - Mount Egmont - Google Art Project.jpg, Mount Egmont File:Dorothy Kate Richmond - Woman with children.jpg, Woman with children File:D. K. Richmond - Purple and bronze - Google Art Project.jpg, Purple and bronze

List of works

Works by D. K. Richmond in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richmond, Dorothy 1861 births 1935 deaths People from Nelson, New Zealand Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Alumni of Bedford College, London Nelson College for Girls faculty 19th-century New Zealand painters 20th-century New Zealand painters Atkinson–Hursthouse–Richmond family 19th-century New Zealand women artists 20th-century New Zealand women artists