painter and writer, was born in England, probably London, on 5 March 1804, the second daughter of Sir Francis Molyneux Ommanney and Georgiana Frances, née Hawkes. She married Augustus Prinsep in Calcutta on 6 June 1828. She and her new-born daughter joined the ailing Augustus at Singapore on a voyage to Van Diemen’s Land in the Flora . On 22 September 1829 they landed at Hobart Town where they stayed until the following March. After her husband’s death in October 1830 Elizabeth Prinsep edited his letters into Journal of a Voyage from Calcutta to Van Diemen’s Land , published in 1833. Although many of the sketches in the two volumes of accompanying illustrations published later that year are attributed to Augustus, the plate New Norfolk is inscribed 'from a sketch by Mrs. A Prinsep’ and New Norfolk from the Governor’s House is also assumed to be her work. These and Augustus’s Hobarton were engraved by Elizabeth’s younger brother, John Orde Ommanney.

A large oil painting, Hobart 1829 (DG), was developed from a sketch by Prinsep (probably by the later painter Haughton Forrest ) and photographed early in the twentieth century by John Beattie for his Historical Photographs Relating to Tasmania , where it is titled Sullivans Cove, Hobart Town 1829 . Beattie described the photograph as 'copied from a sketch by Mrs. A. Prinsep, of Calcutta’, although she is unlikely to have been responsible for this fine oil painting. Nevertheless, her role in the production and illustration of the Journal seems to have been far more than a matter of simple editing. This is probably also true for the publication in 1834 of The Baboo: And Other Tales Descriptive of Society in India , attributed posthumously to A. Prinsep on the title-page.

On 16 July 1840 Elizabeth Prinsep married the architect Samuel Beachcroft in Mortlake Church, Surrey, a building enlarged earlier that year to Beachcroft’s design. A print from her sketch of the unimproved church is known. She died on 18 March 1885.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011