Harry Rountree

Harry Rountree (26 January 1878[1] – 26 September 1950)[2][3] was a prolific illustrator working in England around the turn of the 20th century. Born in Auckland, New Zealand,[4] he moved to London in 1901, when he was 23 years old.[3]

Harry Rountree
Born(1878-01-26)26 January 1878
Auckland, New Zealand
Died26 September 1950(1950-09-26) (aged 72)
St Ives, Cornwall, England
OccupationIllustrator
Spouse(s)
Stella Stewart
​
(m. 1906⁠–⁠1950)​
Children2

Life

Harry Rountree was born in 1878 to Irish banker, Stephen Gilbert Rountree (5 November 1851 - 9 September 1918)[5] and Julia Bartley (24 December 1851 - 29 October 1930), the niece of prominent New Zealand architect Edward Bartley.[6]

Rountree was educated at Auckland’s Queen’s College, and began working at Wilson and Horton Printers in the city, designing show-cards, advertisements, and product labels.[7]:193

Rountree is noted for his illustrations of British golf courses and golfing caricatures.[8] Rountree moved to England in 1901 intending to forge a career on the then-flourishing magazine and book market. For two years he attempted to commissions. In 1903, the editor of the magazine 'Little Folks' gave Rountree a commission to illustrate a story. It was after this commission that Rountree's career began to flourish and he became in demand illustrator. Rountree's work features in publications such as; The Strand, Cassell's, Pearson's, The Sketch, The Illustrated London News, Playtime, Little Folks, and many others.[9] Rountree was one of the leading illustrators selected by Percy Bradshaw for inclusion in his The Art of the Illustrator (1917-1918) which presented a separate portfolio for each of twenty illustrators.[note 1]

Rountree also served as a consultant at the Percy Bradshaw's Press Art School, a school teaching painting, drawing, and illustration by correspondence. The consultants gave feedback on the work submitted by the students.[7]:32

During the First World War, he served as a captain in the Royal Engineers.[3]

Rountree produced well-liked cartoons for the magazine Punch from 1905 to 1939, and also created advertising, posters and book illustrations for writers such as P. G. Wodehouse and Arthur Conan Doyle. [12]

Death

Largely forgotten, Rountree died in St Ives, Cornwall in 1950. He was survived by his wife and two children.

Selected works
  • S. H. Hamer, Harry Rountree, Archibald's Amazing Adventure, Or, The Tip-top Tale (London: Cassell and Co., 1905)

Notes
  1. The portfolio contained: a brief biography of Rountree, an illustration of Rountree at work in his studio, an explanation of Rountree's method of working. This was accompanied by a plate showing an illustration typical of his work and five other plates showing the work at five earlier stages of its production, from the first rough to the just before the finished drawing or colour sketch.[10] Rountree's coloured illustration apparently shows a young chick being threatened by a mouse against a river background. It is dated 1915.[11]

References
  1. 1939 England and Wales Register
  2. "Deaths". The Times. London, England. 27 September 1950. p. 1. ROUNTREE; On Sept. 26, 1950, at the West Cornwall Hospital, Harry Rountree, Artist, of St. Ives and Saltings, Lelant, Cornwall, beloved husband of Stella and father of Gilbert and Lynda.
  3. "Mr. Harry Rountree". The Times. London, England. 27 September 1950. p. 6.
  4. 1911 England Census
  5. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rountree-186
  6. http://localhistorybartley.blogspot.com/2015/05/julia-bartley-and-steven-rountree.html
  7. Bryant, Mark (2018). Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Cartoonists and Caricaturists. London: Routledge.
  8. Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin, Harry Rountree (illus). The Golf Courses of the British Isles, published by London: Duckworth, 1910, via Internet Archive
  9. http://www.bpib.com/rountree.htm
  10. "The Connisseur Bookself". The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors. 51 (204): 223. 1918-08-01. Retrieved 2020-08-12 – via The Internet Archive.
  11. "Harry Rountree: Harry Rountree and His Work: The Art of the Illustrator (Limited Edition Prints)". Illustration Art Gallery with The Book Palace. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  12. http://punch.photoshelter.com/gallery/Harry-Rountree-Cartoons/G0000w42TuJoZgTg/
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