24 Facts About Ellis Rowan

Marian Ellis Rowan, known as Ellis Rowan, was a well-known Australian artist and botanical illustrator.

Ellis Rowan did a series of illustrations on birds, butterflies and insects.

Ellis Rowan's family was well-connected: sister Ada Mary married Admiral Lord Charles Scott, son of the Duke of Buccleuch; brother Sir Charles Ryan was a noted Melbourne surgeon and for a time Turkish consul in London.

Ellis Rowan 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.

Ellis Rowan's husband was interested in botany and he encouraged her to paint wild flowers.

Ellis Rowan had had no training but working conscientiously and carefully in water-colour; her work is noted for being botanically informative as well as artistic.

Ellis Rowan exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

Ellis Rowan published in 1898 A Flower-Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand, largely based on letters to her husband and friends.

Ellis Rowan returned to Australia and held exhibitions of her work which sold at comparatively high prices.

Ellis Rowan died at Macedon, Victoria, her husband and her only son having predeceased her.

Ellis Rowan's husband died of pneumonia in 1892, aged 47.

Ellis Rowan's son died of nephritis in Africa, aged 22, while in jail awaiting trial on charges of forgery.

Ellis Rowan's art was housed in the National Library, not the National Gallery.

The Queensland Museum's collection of 125 botanical paintings by Ellis Rowan has been in accessible to the public for almost half a century.

Ellis Rowan painted most of her Queensland paintings indoor, she always worked into the night to drawn plants that she collected on her journey.

Ellis Rowan painted and traveled with her curiosity and personal interests, and she did not intend to be a serious botanical illustrator.

Ellis Rowan desired to make artistic compositions, which generally represented with bold close-up form.

Ellis Rowan's composition was influenced by the Thornton's Temple of Flora.

Ellis Rowan sometimes added insects and even snakes to her artworks, like some of Thornton's art, in order to achieve the dramatic effect.

Ellis Rowan produced multiple copies of her paintings, and this non-professional and peculiar practice resulted in the difficulty of classifying the quantity of her output.

For today's botanists, Ellis Rowan's painting has limited scientific research value because they are lacking the critical details that is necessary for the botanical illustrations.

Ellis Rowan created her botanical world more than paint every detail of her observation.

Ellis Rowan preferred colorful and showy species rather than many small-flowered herbaceous species.

Ellis Rowan was commissioned to do a series of paintings to be used as designs on Royal Worcester tea sets.