Biographical entry Rowan, Marian Ellis (1848 - 1922)

Summary

Marian Ellis Rowan is best known for her Australian wild flower paintings. The Australian government bought 947 of them in 1923 and the collection is held at the National Library of Australia, together with a portrait of her by John Longstaff.

Details

No formal art training, but encouraged by English relatives whom she visited in 1869 to continue painting wildflowers in her own style, married Frederick Charles Rowan 1873 and moved to New Zealand, returned to Victoria 1877, exhibited her work in international exhibitions in Australia, India, England, Europe and the USA 1879-93, winning 10 gold medals, 15 silver and 4 bronze, travelling and exhibiting in New Zealand, London and the USA 1893-1905, wrote "Flower Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand" 1898, returned to Australia 1905 and searched to find and record every species of wildflower on the continent, visited Papua and New Guinea twice in 1916-18, finding and illustrating many hitherto unclassified flowers and searching for unidentified birds of paradise, exhibited 1,000 paintings in Sydney 1920. Queen Victoria had 3 of her paintings, the South Australian purchased 100 and Queensland 125. Many of her discoveries were classified and named by Ferdinand von Mueller (q.v.).

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 2003, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Books

• McKay, Judith, Ellis Rowan, a flower-hunter in Queensland, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane, 1990, 91 pp. Details
• Rowan, Ellis, A Flower-hunter in Queensland and New Zealand, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1898, 272 pp. Details
• Rowan, Ellis, The flower hunter : the adventures in Northern Australia and New Zealand, of flower painter Ellis Rowan, Collins/Angus & Robertson, North Ryde, NSW, 1991, 216 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Hazzard, Margaret, 'Rowan, Marian Ellis (1848-1922), artist, naturalist and explorer', in Geoffrey Serle (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 11, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1988, pp. 465-466. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110473b.htm. Details
• Kerr, Joan, 'Ellis Rowan (1848-1922) natural history painter', in Heather Radi (ed.), 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology, Women's Redress Press Inc, Sydney, 1988. Details

Edited Books

• McKay, Judith (ed.), Brilliant Careers: Women Collectors and Illustrators in Queensland, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, 1997, 80 pp. Details

Online Resources

• 'Rowan, Marian Ellis (1848-1922), Biographical Entry', in Australian Women's Archives Project, National Foundation for Australian Women, 2002, http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0329b.htm. Details
• 'Rowan, Ellis', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-620637. Details