Harriet
Scott (1830–1907) and her sister Helena (1832–1910) were the daughters of
Alexander Walter Scott, entomologist and failed entrepreneur. They were both
skilled naturalists and illustrators frustrated by the circumstance of their
class and social position. Their father’s unsuccessful business activities
forced them to rely on their artistic talents to earn their livelihood. But no
matter how impoverished their upper-middle-class father found himself, he would
not allow them to accept commissions openly, sign their own published drawings
or be formally educated.
When their father finally approved their actually signing their published drawings, Helena wrote, ‘Oh! you cannot think how thankful I am that my dear father allows me to place my name to the drawings. It makes me feel twice as much pleasure while painting them.’
Both Harriet’s and Helena’s signed drawings appear in their father’s
Australian Lepidoptera. This work illustrates the insects in their various
stages of metamorphosis, in the environment in which they lived. It established
the sisters’ reputation as illustrators.
Display item Aglaosoma lauta & Cerura Australis, 1864
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