12 Facts About Harry Rountree

Harry Rountree was a prolific illustrator working in England around the turn of the 20th century.

Harry Rountree was born in 1878 to Irish banker, Stephen Gilbert Rountree and Julia Bartley, the niece of New Zealand architect Edward Bartley.

Harry Rountree progressed to become special artist for the Auckland Weekly News, published by Wilson and Horton, with his earliest signed drawings, quite serious in tone and subject matter, appearing in 1899.

New Zealand formed part of the readership of the London periodical press at this time and Harry Rountree developed the ambition to join the ranks of its most prominent illustrators.

Harry Rountree travelled to England on the Orient Line steamship RMS Omrah, taking with him a portfolio of his work to impress British art editors.

Mr Harry Rountree, who has been on the artistic staff of the Auckland Weekly News for some years, arrived in London last Saturday evening, by way of Paris, having come by the SS Omrah to Marseilles, and crossed France by rail.

Mr Harry Rountree tells me that the principal object of his visit to the Mother Country is to extend his artistic studies in black and white work.

Harry Rountree was awarded a second-class pass in July 1902, but by that time had already met Sam Hield Hamer, editor of Little Folks magazine, who invited him to illustrate his story 'Extracts from the Diary of a Duckling'.

Harry Rountree is noted for his illustrations of British golf courses and golfing caricatures.

Harry Rountree was one of the leading illustrators selected by Percy Bradshaw for inclusion in his The Art of the Illustrator which presented a separate portfolio for each of twenty illustrators.

Harry Rountree served as a consultant at the Percy Bradshaw's Press Art School, a school teaching painting, drawing, and illustration by correspondence.

Harry Rountree died of cancer in the West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance, Cornwall on 26 September 1950, aged 72 years, being survived by his wife and two children.