Marian Ellis Rowan
Marian Ellis Rowan (1848 - 1922) was a remarkable woman, inspired by the flora and fauna of the world to create her elegant artworks. She blurred the lines between fine art and natural history illustration with artworks characterised not only by their detailed accuracy but also her own compositional charm and touches of dramatic interest, such as the inclusion of insects. Earlier examples were often painted on coloured paper with the flowers arranged like a posy, usually in the middle of the picture, whilst later works incorporated more narrative elements, citing the plant in a setting, perhaps cloudy skies or drizzling rain or sometimes even a background landscape. This extends to her imagery of birds where they are carefully positioned amongst branches and foliage. The later works tend to fill the paper – sometimes with hanging or drooping leaves, or growing and reaching up, showing a greater compositional concern rather than botanical identification. There is also her tendency to sprinkle descriptive touches such as butterflies, caterpillars, beetles and other bugs, adding more life, colour, movement and giving a sense of scale.
Although Ellis Rowan is known for her extensive and adventurous global travel, she was particularly inspired by the gardens of her youth at Mount Macedon when her father acquired Derriweit Heights in 1872 : 26 acres with garden layout designed by W. R. Guilfoyle and government botanist Ferdinand Mueller advised on plantings. As Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, von Mueller encouraged Ellis Rowan to submit her artworks for identification, recording many exotic species. He also provided her with useful contacts, particularly internationally.
Her husband, Captain Frederic Charles Rowan also encouraged her artistic career, following their marriage in 1873 and his travels allowed her to accompany him and continue her pursuit of depicting wildflowers. After his premature death in 1892, Ellis Rowan was able to renew her travels with a greater freedom, spending time in New Zealand; London; New York; California; Cuba; the Caribbean; Papua New Guinea; Queensland; Kalgoorlie; Broken Hill; the Grampians.
The delicacy of her paintings and fragility of her materials, predominately watercolour and gouache on paper, belie the challenging conditions she travelled to capture her subject, usually painted in situ and from life – including the rainforests of Queensland; wildflowers in remote Western Australia; tropical Papua New Guinea; mountains of New Zealand; the foothills of the Himalayas; a decade long trip to England where her work was collected by Queen Victoria; and America where she collaborated on texts which became standards for botany students (A Guide to the Wildflowers 1899; A Guide to the Trees, 1900; Southern Wildflowers and Trees, 1901).
This celebrated and prolific artist with her reputation for painting wildflowers is represented in many public collections including significant holdings at the National Library of Australia and the Queensland Museum; as well as the National Gallery of Australia; the National Gallery of Victoria; the Art Gallery of New South Wales; Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art; the Art Gallery of Western Australia; the Royal Botanic Gardens, Adelaide; the National Herbarium, Melbourne; the National Trust of Australia; the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.