Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

Walthamstow, Essex England, UK, Walthamstow, Essex (Greater London), England, UK

Biography

watercolourist and public servant, was born on 24 August 1820 at Walthamstow, England, son of Thomas Solly and Mary, née Travers. After being educated at Dr Knox’s Tonbridge School, Solly joined the East India Company as a midshipman. He remained only a short period because of events that seriously affected his health, then joined the Alliance Assurance Company. In 1837-38 he spent some time in Madeira for health reasons. After returning to England, his continuing poor health led to a decision to migrate to South Australia. He arrived at Adelaide in December 1840. Having engaged for some time in sheep farming then mining, Solly joined the Customs Department in 1850. In 1855 he was offered the position of private secretary to Sir Henry Fox Young, the new Governor of Tasmania. Shortly before taking up the appointment, Solly took a voyage to Sydney and Newcastle, staying for some months in Sydney. On 13 March 1856 he married Jane Watts, youngest daughter of the postmaster-general of South Australia and former aide-de-camp to Governor Macquarie Captain John Watts , and Jane, née Campbell, a niece of Mrs Macquarie. After two years as private secretary to Governor Young, Solly was appointed assistant colonial secretary (an office later called under-secretary). He held the post from 1857 until 1894, a period of thirty-seven years. He was very active in many other official as well as unofficial positions until he retired aged seventy-four. He died on 14 August 1902, aged nearly eighty-two. No information survives of Solly’s training as an artist, but in his 1856 account of his family he refers to the artistic talents of his three sisters. As he was the youngest child, it is possible that they influenced his artistic development. He may also have been taught to draw at Hove and Tonbridge. His earliest drawings date from the late 1830s, when he was aged about nineteen, and continue until about 1894 when he was seventy-four. They are mainly landscapes, in pen, pencil or watercolour, although at least one self-portrait is known. The pen-and-ink drawings he showed at the St David’s Cathedral Art Exhibition in Hobart in 1892 – Lover’s Leap, East Coast , Southland Falls, N.Z. and George’s River Falls – were praised for their 'delicate manner’ by the Mercury reviewer who thought they looked 'more like engravings’ than sketches. Writers: Dodson, H. L. Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 24 August 1820

Summary

A well-connected colonial official for most of his life, Solly was an accomplished sketcher and watercolourist with representation in significant collections.

Gender

Male

Died

14-Aug-02

Age at death

82