Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

London, England, UK

Biography

painter, was born in the residential clerk’s quarters of the Merchant Taylors Hall, London, ninth of the ten children of John and Isabel De Mole. With her widowed mother, brothers George and Ernest and elder sister Fanny , she came to South Australia in 1856. Little is known of her colonial life apart from a distinguished history as an exhibitor and prizewinner in the annual exhibitions of the South Australian Society of Arts from 1865 to 1871, together with her sister. At the society’s 1865 exhibition Miss H. De Mole won 3 guineas for the best watercolour landscape. The following year her Fisherboy 'very deservedly takes the prize … for the best painting of the human figure’. No paintings were exhibited in 1867, the year Fanny died. But at the society’s 1868 exhibition Harriet – now the 'Miss’ of the De Mole family – won 3 guineas for the best watercolour painting of fruit and/or flowers by a lady, 2 guineas for the best watercolour painting of a bouquet of flowers and a guinea second prize in the open section for fruit and/or flower painting. Despite the fact that every one of the flower paintings she entered won a prize, the South Australian Advertiser 's art critic, oblivious of any change in artist, commented that this year Miss De Mole’s watercolours had not been 'arranged with her usual judgement, or finished with her usual care. There is also a flatness and want of variety in the group which takes the 15th prize. We are inclined to prefer Mrs Mack’s [q.v.] group which takes the 17th prize.’ Harriet not only assumed the mantle of floral artist in the family but also continued to paint subject pictures. In 1868 Miss De Mole was awarded a special prize for her crayon copy by an amateur ( The Village Belle ) and two second prizes: one for another copy from a chromolithograph or watercolour (hers depicted children gathering roses in a wood) and the other for an original watercolour landscape by an amateur. She also won three first prizes for her flower paintings. The Adelaide Observer noted: 'The various prizes offered for flower painting seem to have elicited considerable competition, but all the prizes but one are, as usual, carried off by Miss De Mole. Her bouquet of native flowers … is a tasteful group, beautifully executed’. Harriet’s ability in flower painting was obviously equal to her sister’s; her exhibition record after Fanny’s death strengthens Duffy’s hypothesis of collaborative work on both paintings and book. Miss De Mole reaped a bumper crop of eight prizes in the Society’s 1869 exhibition, her winning entries comprising two copies (first prize and runner-up), a coloured chalk drawing ( A Virgin and Child ) and five flower paintings. The flowers gained her three first and two second prizes – runner-up to her own work. At the following exhibition she only won two prizes, for a copy and a flower painting, but by then she seems to have been exhibiting less. Her solitary prize-winner in 1871 was a painting illustrating the last ten lines of Shakespeare’s King John, Act 4, Scene 2 (the blacksmith’s scene) for which Mr Abraham had offered 5 guineas conditional on the subject having been painted in the colony in 1870 or 1871. The Advertiser thought her entry was not a success in any respect, 'but we presume the judges thought differently. Neither in conception, composition, nor execution does it appear to us to possess qualities entitling it to a first-class prize.’ Harriet’s mother died in 1870 and this apparently left her with no reason to stay in South Australia, indeed in the world. Soon afterwards she returned to England and is believed to have entered a nunnery (possibly an Anglican sisterhood). She died in England in 1891. A few of her exquisite watercolours of flowers remain in family possession. Writers: Staff Writer Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1837

Summary

Painter, particularly known for her paintings of Australian flowers. Her beautiful studies appear in 'Wildflowers of South Australia,' published in London in 1861.

Gender

Female

Died

1891

Age at death

54