History - Margaret Hope Art

Entrance Foyer

One of the most commented on artworks in the Entally Collection is the floral painting in shades of purple and white hanging in the Entrance Foyer. A gorgeous composition of native Australia flora, the artist Margaret Hope is well known for artworks of this quality.

Born in Tasmania on 24th May 1848, Margaret Anderson Hope grew up in South Hobart. In 1863, her family were living a mere 100m down the road from the Allport’s – a family of artists, including Mary Morton Allport (1806 – 1895), who influenced Margaret’s art in her later years.

Schooled locally at Miss Garrett’s Ladies College in Hobart, before working as a governess at Leith on Tasmania’s North West Coast. This is where she is said to have collected many botanical specimens, of which she based her art on. Margaret did not formally train as an artist, rather teaching herself the craft.

Through many years of frequent exhibitions, dabbling in wax modelling, and selling some pieces, she quickly gained a reputation for her paintings of Tasmanian wildflowers on wooden tabletops and other furniture. Margaret painted tabletops with native berries, flowers & ferns; painted flowers on fans & paper in watercolours, as well as oils on canvas. By 1879, Margaret was an established art teacher in Hobart, and in 1880, she won fourth prize in the Melbourne International Exhibition and first prize in the Sydney International Exhibition, for an ornamental table of Huon pine painted with Tasmanian flowers in watercolours. This started a long line of local & national prizes throughout her career.  

Margaret went on to become a prominent member of the Art Society of Tasmania, serving on the Council from 1892 – 1902, and exhibiting/selling her work through shows. Rumours abounded that her asking prices were quite high, particularly for her flower studies, with the 1897 Native Laurel painting selling for £5.5s - this didn’t appear to hinder her sales though, with almost all of her pieces selling.

In addition to her paintings, Margaret was commissioned to draw poisonous plants of Queensland, which was published for the benefit of stock owners in the region. Her attention to detail of leaf structure, colour, and composition made this invaluable to farmers. This lead to a book called Wildflowers of Tasmania – never published, it eventually was discovered at a Sotherby’s auction listed as an “outstanding example of unpublished colonial Tasmanian flora” in 1990. This was then acquired by the Allport Library & Museum of Fine Arts in 2014 and exhibited publicly in late 2015.

Margaret passed away in Hobart, in April 1934 at age 86. Today, one of her most impressive works, a panelled screen painted with Tasmanian botanicals, is held by the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery. This work is regarded as an important representation of studio crafts practised in colonial Tasmania.

Three of her paintings hang in the Entally Entrance Foyer – the cream & purple natives, one of red natives on a table, and one of cream & yellow natives. Another of cream, red & yellow natives hangs in the Drawing Room – this one dates to 1903, and is thought to be one of the last she painted.