Elizabeth Hudspeth:
Like many early Australian female artists Elizabeth Hudspeth’s name even today remains largely unrecognised and her works mostly unknown.
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The eldest child of Dr. John Maule Hudspeth and his wife Mary (nee Lowrey), Elizabeth was born in Bowsden, Northumberland, England on 9 September 1820. In 1822 her parents decided to immigrate to Van Diemen’s Land, departing on board the brig Minerva in May that year. With Mary heavily pregnant at the time, young Elizabeth was left in the care of relatives in Northumberland. The couple’s second daughter, Alice Eleanora, was born during the voyage to the Tasmanian colony.
Although Dr. Hudspeth had been appointed Assistant Colonial Surgeon, he also became interested in farming, taking up land at Jericho, south of Oatlands and naming his property Bowsden in deference to his former home town in England. The family initially lived in a simple hut while the estate was being developing, but eventually the land holdings grew to encompass 4,000 acres and a homestead more fitting of a man of Dr. Hudspeth’s position was constructed.
At the age of 11, Elizabeth finally made the journey out to Van Diemen’s Land, travelling on board the Medway in the care of a Mr. Barclay and his wife. Reuniting with her parents after almost a decade, she also met her three sisters, Alice, Mary Jnr and Catherine, and one brother, John, for the first time. Three other brothers had died in infancy and the youngest, Francis (Frank) was yet to be born.
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Elizabeth had had an accident during the voyage out, slipping over and injuring her knee, a “white swelling” developing as a result. Consequently, soon after her arrival her father and another medico, Dr. Robert Officer were forced to amputate her leg, a horrifying operation that was performed without anaesthetic, a bullet placed in her mouth to prevent her gnashing her teeth during the torturous procedure. Recovering from her horrendous introduction to colonial life, she was to wear a prosthetic cork leg for the rest of her life. Nonetheless, she refused to allow it to hinder her activities - she journeyed throughout Van Diemen’s Land sketching scenes, went alone by steam ship to visit her friend Mary Mowle at Twofold Bay and travelled unaccompanied back to England, historian Robert Stevens aptly describing her as “…a courageous, talented and highly spirited young woman…”
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Elizabeth parents, Dr. John Maul Hudspeth and Mary (Snr), watercolours on card by C. H. T. Constantini. 1834.
Courtesy of a private collection. Published in Australiana, Vol. 39, No. 1, February 2017.
In August 1837, just prior to Elizabeth’s seventeenth birthday, her father passed away from “mental decay” aged just 45. No doubt the rigours of an adventurous life in the Arctic regions as well as the struggles experienced during the family’s early days at Jericho would have contributed to this early demise. Although her brothers John and Frank were still quite young, her mother Mary determined to keep the Bowsden property for them and Elizabeth, as the eldest child, would have had to accept much of the responsibility this entailed. It was probably around this time that her paternal grandfather Thomas, an aunt, also named Elizabeth, and two uncles, Alexander and James, joined the family and helped run the farm. Later the land was leased out but the family remained resident in the homestead.
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Despite the many competing demands on her time, Elizabeth still found time to hone her creative skills, becoming quite an accomplished amateur artist. Although she doesn’t appear to have had any formal training, she did come into contact with convict landscape and portrait artist, printmaker and lithographer Charles Henry Theodore Costantini. Twice sentenced to transportation, he had served as assistant surgeon and hospital superintendent at Port Arthur before being assigned to Oatlands as a clerk. After securing his Certificate of Freedom he took up a position as medical assistant to Dr. Hudspeth and briefly became the unofficial surgeon to the settlement after his employer became ill. Best known for his portraits, he painted a series depicting the Hudspeth family, including Elizabeth’s parents Dr. John and Mary Snr, (see above), her sisters Alice, Mary
Jnr., and Catherine, and brothers John and Francis, as well as the only known image in existence of Elizabeth, then probably aged about 13 or 14. Again according to historian Robert Stevens, he “…captures a strength of character already evident at this young age.” It is very possible that Costantini had an influence on Elizabeth’s interest in art and, as Stevens points out, some of her sketches demonstrate a style similar to his naive rural landscapes.
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Elizabeth suffered yet more loss when her mother passed away of tuberculosis in March 1853; followed in July the same year by her brother John’s suicide. Soon afterwards, she, along with her other brother Frank and Aunt Elizabeth determined to return to England. Before taking her leave however, Elizabeth travelled alone to Twofold Bay to bid a final farewell to her dearest friend Mary Mowle. She finally sailed for England on board the Antipodes in March 1854, never to return to the Australian colonies.
By this time, all remaining members of her family were already in England - her aunt Elizabeth; her sister Catherine, husband Robert Nalder Clarke and their baby; sister Alice,
Elizabeth Hudspeth's siblings John Coulter, Catherine and Francis, watercolours on card by C. H. T. Constantini, 1834.
Courtesy of a private collection. Published in Australiana, Vol. 39, No. 1, February 2017.
husband William Patterson and their children; sister Mary, husband John Orr and children; and her brother Frank, who was soon to enter the University of Cambridge.
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Elizabeth suffered yet more loss when her mother passed away of tuberculosis in March 1853; followed in July the same year by her brother John’s suicide. Soon afterwards, she, along with her other brother Frank and Aunt Elizabeth determined to return to England. Before taking her leave however, Elizabeth travelled alone to Twofold Bay to bid a final farewell to her dearest friend Mary Mowle. She finally sailed for England on board the Antipodes in March 1854, never to return to the Australian colonies.
Between 1854 and 1855, after arriving in London, Elizabeth wrote a series of journal letters to Mary Mowle. In them she described the social and cultural life of London; the art galleries and theatre; and her relationship with her married sisters. She records visiting her parents’ native home in the north of England, visits to Landsborough Castle and her own birthplace at Bowsden “…where I was greeted with mingled expressions of curiosity and pleasure by the old folk who had known me as a child and who well remembered my father and grandfather…”
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By this time, Elizabeth was 33 years of age and her drawings were highly regarded. In her journals to Mary Mowle, she chronicled her efforts to market her artwork, taking some of her sketches to Messrs. M. and N. Hanhart, lithographers, in Charlotte Street, in November 1854 “…to experiment upon with a view, if successful, of turning my drawings…towards some account.” On 17 February 1855, she returned to the firm to “…discharge their account for executing four drawings; an enormous sum and not at all likely to be liquidated by the sale of the impressions…” Among the works so produced were three that she had completed while visiting Mary in Twofold Bay - The Customs House, Eden, Twofold Bay, Australia; Eden, Twofold Bay, Australia; and Boydtown, Twofold Bay, Australia.
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Then, towards the end of February 1855 she and Mrs. Wren, with whom she was staying, tried to market the lithographs “…enquiring at different print sellers, if they would show them, but in vain – they were ‘quite out of their line’ – ‘too small and not sufficiently interesting’…” Two days later, however, she reported “…Mrs. Wren and I had a long muddy walk through different parts of the city enquiring at all the most promising looking print shops on the subject of the lithographs – out of a dozen of these one house only consents to take a few on trial – J. C. Heite Repository, Leaden-Hall Street…”
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Elizabeth Hudspeth, watercolour on card by C. H. T. Constantini, 1834.
Courtesy of a private collection. Published in Australiana, Vol. 39, No. 1, February 2017.
Like her mother before her, Elizabeth tragically contracted tuberculosis during the 1850s. Her brother Frank took her to Madeira in the Canary Islands in the hope that her health would improve, but to no avail. She died there on 29 May, 1858, at the age of just 38. The same year, two of her younger sisters, Mary Orr and Catherine Clarke, both died from the same disease. Of the original family of nine children, only Alice (Patterson) and Frank remained.
The latter inherited the Hudspeth properties Bowsden and Lowick in Tasmania. After he graduated from Cambridge, he took holy orders and eventually became Canon of St. David’s Cathedral in Hobart. He married Lucy Mills Cogle, only daughter of Charles Mills Cogle of Huntworth, Jericho.
Elizabeth left as her legacy a number of pencil and pen-and-ink landscapes depicting an era of growth and development in Tasmania as well as a brief document of happenings in Twofold Bay. In a number of instances, her works are the only known extant pictorial illustrations of various buildings and scenes.
Examples of the sketches she had lithographed in London eventually made their way back to Australia and several cultural institutions now hold copies including the Eden Killer Whale Museum, National Library of Australia, Australian National Maritime Museum and the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office. The original of only one of these has been located to date.
Elizabeth Hudspeth is believed to have been only the second female Australian artist to have had her work lithographed outside the colonies.
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© Angela George. All rights reserved.
References and bibliography:
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Clarke, Patricia, A Colonial Woman: The Life and Times of Mary Braidwood Mowle 1827-1857, Eden Killer Whale Museum, Eden, 2000
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Clarke, Patricia, Mowle, Mary Braidwood (1827 – 1857) Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mowle-mary-braidwood-13117
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Curnow, H., Island Exile – C. H. T. Costantini, Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Hobart, 1997
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Denholm, Matthew, Sketches Reveal Colony’s Secrets, in The Australian, 24 August, 2018
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Design and Arts Australia Online, Elizabeth Hudspeth, https://www.daao.org.au/bio/elizabeth-hudspeth/
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Deutscher and Hackett, Australian and International Fine Art Auction, Melbourne, 24 April, 2013, auction catalogue, Lot 89, Group of four works relating to the Hudspeth family, Hobart and Jericho, c1850, by Charles Henry Theodore Costantini, Thomas Bock and Elizabeth Hudspeth.
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Kerr, Joan (ed.), Heritage: The National Women's Art Book, Art and Australia, Sydney, 1995,
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Stevens, Robert, Elizabeth Hudspeth – An Artist in Van Diemen’s Land, pp. 10 – 19, in Australiana, Vol. 39, No. 1, February 2017.