Marian Ellis Rowan Marian Ellis Rowan

Ellis Rowan was a brilliant Australian naturalist, painter and illustrator.

Ellis Rowan produced some of the most powerfully arresting flower paintings recorded in Australian art. She painted more species of Australian and international flora than any other artist of her era, exploring the world to find exotic flowers, plants, birds and butterflies.

Marian Ellis Rowan nee Ryan was born in Melbourne on 30 July 1848, the eldest of seven children of pioneering parents, Charles and Marian Ryan. Charles Ryan leased Killeen Station at Longwood, near the Strathbogie Ranges, where the young Ellis Rowan spent her early childhood.

She was educated at Miss Murphy's private school in Melbourne, and in 1873 married Captain Charles Rowan, who had fought in the New Zealand wars. Her husband was interested in botany and he encouraged her to paint wild flowers. She had had no training but working conscientiously and carefully in water-colour; her work is noted for being botanically informative as well as artistic.

Rowan returned to Melbourne in 1877, and for many years travelled in Australia painting the flora of the country, at times in the company of her painting companion, Margaret Forrest. She published in 1898 A Flower-Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand, largely based on letters to her husband and friends.

The reality is that her work crossed the boundaries between art and natural history illustration. Much of her work is of a very high standard in both these disciplines. Her studies of flowers, insects and birds were often set in context, with the environment being done in an impressionist style.

The bulk of her Australian and New Guinea collection is owned by the Australian Government and is housed in the National Library in Canberra. This fulfilled one of her dreams - to have the work available for the Australian people.

She died on October 4, 1922 at Macedon.

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❊ Web Links ❊

➼ Marian Ellis Rowan 

➼ Ellis Rowan From Wikipedia

➼ The Flower Hunter | Ellis Rowan

➼ Ellis Rowan (1848-1922)






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