Harry Linley Richardson Miss DK Richmond

Born in Surrey, England, the son of artist George Richardson and Mary Linley, Harry Linley Richardson pursued art training in London through Goldsmiths’ College then Westminster School of Art, before finishing studies at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1900. He worked as a painter, illustrator and teacher before emigrating to Aotearoa New Zealand in 1908, where he was appointed an art instructor at Wellington Technical College.

This work was Richardson’s only entry in the Archibald Prize, and both artist and sitter were New Zealand residents at the time.

Richardson’s subject is much-loved art educator Dorothy Kate Richmond (1861-1935), a fellow member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Born in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), as a child Richmond was taken on a Grand Tour of Europe, studying art and music. She was a scholarship holder at London’s Slade School, later travelling for two years around Europe with a childhood friend, artist Frances Hodgkins.

The painting is now in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, with the title Portrait of Miss DK Richmond.