Ellis Rowan

(Marion) Ellis Rowan (1847Template:Fn – October 4, 1922) was an Australian naturalist and well known illustrator.

Marion, the daughter of Charles and Marian Ryan, was born at Killam, one of her father's stations in Victoria. 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. She published in 1898 A Flower-Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand, largely based on letters to her husband and friends.

About this time she went to North America and provided the illustrations, many in colour, to A Guide to the Wild Flowers, by Alice Lounsberry, published in New York in 1899 as well as Guide to the Trees (1900), and Southern Wild Flowers and Trees (1901) also by Lounsberry. In 1905 she held a successful exhibition in London. She returned to Australia and held exhibitions of her work which sold at comparatively high prices. In 1916 she made a trip to New Guinea, the first of several during which she produced a huge volume of illustrations. She contracted malaria during these journeys. In 1920 she held the largest solo exhibition seen in Australia at the time, when she exhibited 1000 of her works in Sydney. She died at Macedon, Victoria, her husband and her only son both died many years earlier.

Other books by Rowan published in Australia were Bill Baillie, his Life and Adventures, The Queensland Flora, and Sketches in Black and White in New Zealand.

Several accounts of her career have been published including:

• Australia’s Brilliant Daughter Ellis Rowan: Artist, Naturalist, Explorer 1848–1922 (1984) by M. Hazzard. ISBN 0909104735
• Flower Paintings of Ellis Rowan from the Collection of the National Library of Australia (1982) by M. Hazzard and H. Hewson. ISBN 0642897301
• Ellis Rowan: A Flower-Hunter in Queensland (1990) by J. McKay. ISBN 0724238476
• The Flower Hunter: Ellis Rowan (2002) by Patricia Fullerton. ISBN 0642107602

A street in the Canberra suburb of Cook is named in her honour. Much of her work is in the collection of the National Library of Australia or in state collections.

Note

Template:Fnb Her year of birth is quoted in the Dictionary of Australian Biography as 1847, other online sources vary from 1847 to 1849.

Reference

• Dictionary of Australian Biography
• The National Library of Australia. The Flower Hunter: Ellis Rowan