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Birds of ParadiseI found … the most wonderful flowers in the whole world Ellis Rowan, 1916
Rowan had long wanted to visit New Guinea, but her husband and others had rightly cautioned her of its danger. After many years of German occupation, the Melanesian Islands became an Australian protectorate in 1914. This was her great chance.The flower paintings from this trip, however, were nothing like the delicate posies of her youththey had become overwhelmingly luscious with the image pulled right up to the picture plane and bold colours carried in confidant brush strokes to the edge of the paper.
Ellis Rowan, 1916
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, 1918
In 1918 Rowan exhibited 189 works depicting the flora and fauna encountered during her time in New Guinea at a show at the Fine Arts Society Galleries. Included were paintings of 172 flower species, 40 birds of paradise, 72 fungi, two pictures of coral, a bat, a squirrel and a fish. A critic from the Sun newspaper noted: The artist is proud of her mushroom collection, only one of her specimens being known to science. Sun, 13 March 1918
Growing, they look like dolls dressed up in fluted lace petticoats … Some are apple green, others mauve; one is black, and another has a scarlet cap. They stand high on long white stems, and the fungus closely resembles exquisite lace. Rowans final years were spent campaigning for her works to become a national collection. Despite suffering from the effects of malaria, she continued her work for the Royal Worcester Porcelain Company, receiving accolades for her Bird of Paradise designs which were copied by Sedgley and Philips and the Austin brothers.
I have just finished 2175 butterflies and moths of New Guinea, that means work, as they are difficult to paint. Ellis Rowan, letter dated 17 June 1918 or 1919 In March 1920 Rowan staged the largest solo exhibition held in Australia to that date, displaying 1000 paintings, including her butterflies at Anthony Horderns Gallery, Sydney. With the exception of her butterflies, all works were for sale. Opened by Governor Sir Walter Davidson, he urged that the collection be bought by the nation, a point reiterated in an article A Rare Collection: … it is exceedingly important that the works of Mrs Rowan should be preserved as a national collection, for their educative value is very great indeed. The New Guinea collection on show … is an amazing achievement for any woman to have accomplished. Ellis Rowan continued to campaign doggedly for her collection to be bought for the Australian public until her death at Macedon on 4 October 1922. A year later, the Rowan Collection Committee, composed of the organisers of the public campaign to purchase her work, was successful in arranging the sale of 947 watercolours to the Commonwealth Government for £5000.
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