Esther Studholme Hope (née Barker) was born in Woodbury, New Zealand in 1885. She spent the years from 1911 to 1919 studying in England at the Chelsea Polytechnic, Slade School of Fine Art and Kemp-Welch School. During her time in Britain she exhibited with the Royal Scottish Society and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, the Society of Women Artists and the Royal Academy of Arts (1915).
Painter Esther Studholme Hope (née Barker) was born in Woodbury, New Zealand in 1885. She was first introduced to painting through her mother, Emily Studholme, an accomplished amateur artist. Initially, Hope studied with the artist Edwyn Temple, followed, in 1907, by Margaret Stoddart, best known for her botanical paintings and who had spent over nine years painting in Europe, including in England, France and Italy. It was Stoddart who introduced Studholme Hope to the work of the English Impressionists and encouraged her to look to her local environment for painting inspiration.
In 1911, the Barker family travelled to England and Esther stayed on after the rest of the family had returned to New Zealand, to continue her art training. She studied at the Chelsea Polytechnic and the Slade School of Fine Art, where she trained under Henry Tonks, Walter W. Russell and Ambrose McEvoy. In 1915, together with her friends Kitty Mair and Beatrix Dobie, she enrolled at the Kemp-Welch School of Animal Painting (formerly the Herkomer School of Art, then the Bushey School of Art) in Bushey, Hertfordshire, run by Lucy Kemp-Welch, a former pupil of Hubert von Herkomer's. At the end of her training, Studholme Hope embarked on a painting trip around continental Europe only to be trapped in Brittany in France by the outbreak of the First World War. It was some months before she could reach England, however, upon her return, she began driving heavy trucks between the London docks and the city, then, after deciding to become a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse, travelled to Malta for her training.
After the war, she returned to New Zealand in 1919, and a year later, married Norman Hope, with whom she settled at the Grampians Station in the Mackenzie Country. The station became both her home and a lasting inspiration for her art and she produced many paintings of the surrounding landscape. She exhibited watercolours and gouaches with the Royal Scottish Society and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, the Society of Women Artists and the Royal Academy of Arts (1915). Esther Studholme Hope died in Timaru, New Zealand in 1975. Her work is not represented in the UK but is held in collections including the Christchurch Art Gallery and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.