Near Rokeby House.

Tasmania: circa 1890.

Oil on canvas, 300 x 540 mm. well framed in timber; signed by the artist on verso.

An atmospheric image by an accomplished artist, Tasmania's first woman journalist

Mabel Hookey (1871-1953) the first woman journalist in Tasmania, was an accomplished author, photographer and poet, and as a fine artist, a leading female exponent of art in late-nineteenth-century Tasmania. In this sensitive painting, Hookey depicts a well-dressed woman at the reins of a simple overladen cart, capturing beautifully a serene and sun-blessed moment of Australian tranquility.

Mabel Hookey (1871-1953) the first woman journalist in Tasmania, was an accomplished author, photographer and poet, and as a fine artist, a leading female exponent of art in late-nineteenth-century Tasmania. In this sensitive painting, Hookey depicts a well-dressed woman at the reins of a simple overladen cart, capturing beautifully a serene and sun-blessed moment of Australian tranquility.

Mabel Hookey painted this attractive oil near "Rokeby House", her family home in Tasmania on the eastern shore of the Derwent River. Daughter of Vernon William Bligh Hookey, a barrister, she lived with her family at Rokeby, which she later inherited from her grandfather George Stokell. A member of the Royal Society of Tasmania and the Art Society of Tasmania from 1893, her skill as an artist was highly commended in her lifetime. She exhibited widely, including at the "Society of Women Artists" in Sydney, the 1928 "Old Salon" in Paris, and the 1924 "British Empire" exhibition in Wembley.

The area is aptly described in Walch's "Tasmanian Guide Book" of 1871: 'Rokeby, five miles from Bellerive, is beautifully situated on the shore of Ralph's Bay. The whole of the surrounding plain is divided into farms... Few spots in Tasmania have a more thoroughly English aspect than this fair expanse of meadow, corn land, garden, and orchard, with here and there a thin, blue wreath of smoke, guiding the eye to some pleasant nook, where lies a cottage home amidst its fields, or perchance a goodly mansion, encompassed by lawns and plantations... the principal estates and residences in the vicinity are Rokeby House, Mr. George Stokell; Clarendon, Mr. Daniel Stanfield; Clarence Vale, Mr. J. Chipman; Droughty Point, Mr. I. Chipman. Messrs. Holmes and Chipman have also very extensive gardens'.

Middleton and Maning's "Tasmanian Directory and Gazetteer" of 1887 records that 'the Rokeby district was inhabited by many farmers... among the many beautiful and attractive places which abound in Tasmania are some which are so secluded and alienated, as it were, from the sphere of tourist traffic that they are practically unknown beyond their own locality. But this is not so with Rokeby, which offers numerous pleasing and expansive combinations of land and water views within a few miles of Hobart. Peppermint, box, she-oak, and black and silver wattle are among its chief indigenous trees, whose foliage blends admirably with sea and sky'.

Provenance: Private collection (Victoria).

Condition Report: In lovely original condition.

Ref: #4504886

Condition Report