National Library of Australia
The Flower Hunter | Ellis Rowan

A Young Victorian Lady  

… a life full of gaiety.

—Ellis Rowan 1912.

KilleenMarian Ellis Rowan née Ryan was born in Melbourne on 30 July 1848, the eldest of seven children of pioneering parents, Charles and Marian Ryan. Charles Ryan leased Killeen Station at Longwood, near the Strathbogie Ranges, where the young Ellis Rowan spent her early childhood.

In 1853 the family moved to Melbourne. Ellis attended Miss Murphy’s refined school, taking subjects considered essential for the education of a young Victorian lady: scripture, French, English, history, singing, the art of embroidery, lace-making and painting in watercolour.

From an early age she was known as Ellis, as much to distinguish her from her mother, Marian, as to pay tribute to her Irish grandmother (Charles Ryan’s mother), Ellis Agar Hartley, the illegitimate child of King George IV and the Countess of Brandon.

Painted screen c.1890In 1869, aged 21, Rowan made her first trip abroad, basing herself in England for a year. Although it has been said that she made this visit to England ‘with the intention of taking lessons in painting’, she later denied it. Whether she took lessons or not, it is clear that she had been busy honing her skills in the fashionable pastime of flower painting for, on her return, ‘Miss Ellis Ryan’ won a bronze medal for a screen, with four panels of Australian wildflowers, at the 1872 Intercolonial Exhibition in Melbourne.

Mount MacedonWhatever her botanical interests had been, they developed rapidly when her father, a keen botanist himself, bought 26 acres on Mount Macedon and built what was to become, for both him and Ellis, their favourite home and final resting place.

Derriweit Heights was acclaimed as one of the finest homes in the nation and the garden became internationally famous, particularly among botanists and horticulturists. Ferdinand von Mueller, the Victorian Government Botanist, advised on exotic plants from around the world, and the garden layout was designed by W.R. Guilfoyle.

Through her father’s collaboration with von Mueller in the choice of plants for the garden, Rowan was invited to contribute botanical studies for his comprehensive collection on Australian flora.

Ferdinand von MuellerIt is not known precisely when Rowan started submitting her works to him, but von Mueller’s bold handwriting appears on the back of many of her pictures, identifying the subjects in botanical Latin. ‘The Baron’, as he was known, encouraged her work and gave her useful introductions to key people around the world. They kept in touch until his death in 1896.