illustrator mabel betsy hill

      Mabel Betsy Hill (3 March 1872 – 18 November 1956) was born at Cox’s Creek, Auckland, New Zealand, the youngest child of Charles Hill, a hatter, and his wife, Eliza Ann Hulbert. In 1875 the family including Mabel, her brother Alfred Hill and 7 other siblings moved to Wellington, New Zealand. Hill attended primary school but did not attend secondary school. She went directly to the Wellington School of Design to study art in 1886. After time as a pupil of this school she returned as a teacher remaining at the school until 1897. In January 1898 she married John McIndoe, a printer, and moved to Dunedin.

      During her time at the Wellington School of Design she met and was heavily influenced by the Scottish artist James M. Nairn. He introduced her to the contemporary art movements of Europe and, in particular, impressionism.

      After her move to Dunedin, Hill joined the Otago Art Society exhibiting works under her maiden name while sitting on the Council under her married name. She was supported in her art by her husband who, when building a house in preparation for their marriage, also ensured that a small studio was completed. This space enabled Hill to continue to paint throughout her marriage and birth of four children.

      Hill exhibited in Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington painting mainly portraits and still lifes including flowers. Gardening was another favorite activity.

      After the death of her husband in 1916 she ran his printing business but continued to paint and exhibit. She took private pupils and taught art at Archerfield College from 1922-1925. She illustrated Barbara Douglas’s Pictures in a New Zealand Garden (1921) and with Alfred Henry O’Keeffe she opened the Barn Studio in the early 1920s.

      She traveled extensively after her children left home until the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1925-26 she visited her son Archibald McIndoe in the United States. In 1927-28 she visited both the United States and Tahiti and in 1930 went to Europe. Based in London, she painted with Sydney Lough Thompson at Concarneau, Brittany, and in 1931-32 spent seven months in Capri. She returned to Dunedin in 1935, stayed in London again in 1938, and at the end of the war left New Zealand to settle permanently in England to be near her son Archibald McIndoe. She died in East Grinstead, Sussex on 18 November 1956.

 These two images by Mabel Betsy Hill come from the Bolenius Third Grade Reader.

More Links to Mabel Betsy Hill’s Artwork:

• Animal Friends
• Entwisle, Rosemary. ‘Hill, Mabel 1872 – 1956′. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007
• Website devoted to the life and work of New Zealand Painter Mabel Hill
• Photograph of Mabel Hill and her portrait of her son Sir Archibald McIndoe, circa 1950s
• Photograph of Mabel Hill and Sydney Lough Thompson
• Photograph of Wellington Art Club exhibition featuring work by Mabel Hill
• Students at Wellington School of Design
• Items associated with Mabel Hill in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• Mabel Betsy Hill at Ask Art
• Illustrator Mabel Betsy Hill at katinthecupboard and more of her work here too
• 1918 Three Little Pigs by Hill