Ellis Rowan

By descent from the artist to her nephew Sir David Scott

SURFACE Each work is on wove paper which is laid down. There are some small stains and areas of dirt on some of the sheets but generally they appear to be in good overall condition. FRAME Held under glass in a simple rectilinear frame.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Marian Ellis Rowan was the eldest daughter of Charles and Marian Ryan of Killeen Station at Longwood, near the Strathbogie Ranges, Victoria. She was the sister of Ada Mary, Sir David Scott's mother.

A talented painter of Australian wildlife, Rowan was entirely self-taught. Born in Victoria, she moved with her husband Captain Frederic Charles Rowan to New Zealand, where she was encouraged initially to practice as a flower painter. Soon however she developed into a chronicler of Australia's flora and fauna. Sometimes her work took her to precarious parts of her continent, including the outback and jungle of North Queensland and Western Australia. Of the risks she took in her scientific pursuit of the natural world she wrote: 'The excitement of seeking and the delight of finding rare or even unknown specimens abundantly compensated me for all difficulties, fatigue and hardships.'

In 1916, and again in 1917, Rowan travelled to New Guinea to paint the native flora and birds of paradise for a series of designs for the Royal Worcester Porcelain Company. In the course of these two expeditions she documented all of the fifty-two species of birds of paradise. On these trips she stayed at Madang Mission House on the north coast, where the missionary arranged for her to be carried in a hammock around the island by her guides, fearing that a white woman might not be safe. She offered tobacco to the local people in exchange for living specimens for her to draw, and as she recalled; 'The large ones I tucked under my arm and held in that way while I painted them. Some were fierce and hard to hold ... I covered the heads of others with handkerchiefs or a table napkin to keep them a little quieter while I was painting the body' (Ellis Rowan's diary). Suffering a bout of malaria she was forced to return to Australia, taking with her over three hundred watercolours, including the present thirteen examples.