Hulda Ulivia Agt Jorgensen was born 7 Sep 1861 in Fredericksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark, to Hans Peter Jorgensen, Engineer-in-Chief, Govt Railways Denmark, and his wife, Marie Vilhelmine Schumann.
Hulga studied initially at the Danish Art School, Denmark, and subsequently in Australia, under W lister Lister.
Hulda and her older sister, Nicoline Anna Vilhelmine Jorgensen, left Denmark on 5 April 1876, sailing on 'Indirekte’ to Hamburg, thence on 12 April 1876 on 'Fritz Reuter’ to Wellington, New Zealand, as migrants.
On 31 October 1888 she married solicitor, Thomas Marshall, at St Mary’s, Waverley, in Sydney.
Hulda was an artist, a patron of the arts, a promoter of women artists, a tireless fundraiser and supporter of various causes, a traveller, and a sportswoman (cycling and yachting).
She was prolific in her painting – oils and watercolours. There were dozens and dozens of her paintings, both framed and unframed, in her home in North Sydney. She painted landscapes, in Australia and also overseas, travelling extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand, to Asia and the Far East, India, Britain and Europe. Scenes from all these places formed her oeuvre.
As a member of the Royal Art Society, the Strathfield Sketch Club, the Society of Women Painters, and a contributor to the Women’s Work Exhibition (Sydney and Melbourne 1907), Hulda exhibited extensively from the late 1800s to 1930. Her circle included well-known contemporaries – W Lister Lister, Alfred Coffey, A Dattilo Rubbo, J H Carse, etc.
Tom and Hulda Marshall established the Marshall Bequest in 1929, which has acquired numerous art works for the NSW Art Gallery. In the same year they were made life-long members of the Royal Art Society, along with Dame Eadith Walker & Dame Nellie Melba.
Hulda is represented in the Art Gallery, Denmark, and in private collections in Australia.
Two images of her work are found in ’100 Best Paintings’ Royal Art Society, Sydney,1906.
Hulda died 30 July 1938 in her home in North Sydney. Her ashes, and those of her husband, were scattered into the ocean near Waverley Cemetery, where other members of the Marshall Family are buried.
A memorial two-panelled stained glass window and brass plaque to Thomas and Hulda can be found in St Thomas’s Church, North Sydney.
- Writers:
-
Hardie
- Date written:
- 2022
- Last updated:
- 2022
