A Young Victorian Lady
… a life full of gaiety.
Ellis Rowan 1912.
Marian
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 Murphys 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
Ryans mother), Ellis Agar Hartley, the illegitimate child of King
George IV and the Countess of Brandon.
In
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.
Whatever
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 fathers 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.
It
is not known precisely when Rowan started submitting her works to him,
but von Muellers 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.
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