Margaret Olrog Stoddart was born in Diamond Harbour, Canterbury, New Zealand in 1865, one of six children born to Mark Pringle Stoddart and Anna Barbara (nee Schjott). Margaret came from a prosperous and cultured family. Her aunt a noted painter in Edinburgh and her father an admiral's son from Edinburgh, who was fond of drawing, poetry and reading. In 1876 Stoddart was taken to visit relatives in Edinburgh where she briefly attended a ladies' college. After returning to New Zealand she enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art (now known as Ilam School of Fine Arts) in its opening year in 1882. During this period she became a member of the Palette Club, an association of artists who were committed to working from nature. A keen tramper, she made numerous trips around Banks Peninsula and the Southern Alps, sketching the landscape and collecting specimens for studies of native plants. Before long she had established a reputation as one of the country's foremost flower painters, and in 1885 was elected to the council of the Canterbury Society of Arts. She spent time visiting friends in the Chatham Islands in both 1886 and 1891. Her travels were recorded in an album which is now held at the Canterbury Museum, along with 12 of her botanical paintings which they acquired in 1890. In 1894 Stoddart travelled to Melbourne, where with the support from Ellis Rowan, the Australian flower painter, she held a successful exhibition. In 1897 Stoddart left for Europe, visiting Norway and following the popular sketching routes through France, Switzerland and Italy. Her teachers included Norman Garstin, Louis Grier and Charles Lasal. While staying at St Ives in Cornwall, the centre for English impressionism, her artistic interests broadened and landscape clearly emerged as a principal theme. She exhibited widely during nine years away from New Zealand. In Paris she showed at the Salon of the Société des artistes français and the Société nationale des beaux-arts. At an exhibition in 1902 at the Baillie Gallery, London, her work was singled out for praise by the Sunday Times. Before leaving for New Zealand in 1906, she exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts and with the Society of Women Artists. Stoddart's work continued to develop after her return from Europe. By confronting the starkness of the landscape and painting what became perceived as characteristic regional features, she made a significant contribution to the development of art in Canterbury in the 1920s and early 1930s. She exhibited at the Salon in Paris between 1909 and 1914, and was a regular exhibitor with New Zealand art societies. In 1928 a large retrospective exhibition of her work was held by the Canterbury Society of Arts. Margaret Stoddart died at Hanmer on 10 December 1934. Over the years she had won the admiration of critics and fellow artists and the respect of younger painters, including Rita Angus, Olivia Spencer Bower and Toss Woollaston.

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Julie King, 1996