Harry Rountree


Harry Rountree was a prolific illustrator working in England around the turn of the 20th century. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, he moved to London in 1901, when he was 23 years old.

Life

Harry Rountree was born in 1878 to Irish banker, Stephen Gilbert Rountree and Julia Bartley, the niece of prominent New Zealand architect Edward Bartley.
Rountree was educated at Auckland’s Queen’s College.
Rountree is noted for his illustrations of British golf courses and golfing caricatures. 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.
During the First World War, he served as a captain in the Royal Engineers.
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.

Death

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

Selected works