"Portrait of a Dutch Refugee Woman, in which the subject stands before the distinctive door Hilda designed for her studio, may well be thought to belong to the artist's body of work in mixed fanciful and realist vein: but it doesn't. It really does depict a contemporary Dutch person, many of whom came to Australia after 1945 and some of whom moved to the Monaro to work on the Snowy Mountain Hydroelectric Scheme, bring what portable possessions they could."

Dr Sarah Engledow, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art catalogue essay, 2023