Australian Women's Art
in the National Library's Collections

Section 5. Gardens, plants and birds


Sarah Stone (working c.1777-1802)

Snake: Muricated lizard
watercolour in album entitled: Natural history specimens
of New South Wales copied from nature, 1790
R11207

This very important collection of 13 watercolour paintings bound in a sketchbook is the earliest work in the exhibition.

Sarah Stone, a professional London artist was commissioned to paint watercolours of Australian birds, reptiles and mammals from specimens brought back to England by the First Fleet surgeon John White. These drawings were published in 1790 as engravings in White's Journal of a voyage to New South Wales.


Dorothy English Paty (1805-36)

Gigantic lily Newcastle Nov 6th 1835
watercolour in her album: Wildflowers around Newcastle 1832-36
T2189 NK1494/49 Rex Nan Kivell Collection

Dorothy Paty painted the images in these sketchbooks in Newcastle between 1832 and 1836. Her watercolours are strikingly large, vibrant and eye catching, an unusual style for the early colonial period.


Elizabeth Gould (1804-41)

Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus (satin bower bird) c.1841
hand coloured lithograph (loose plate)
Reproduced in: The birds of Australia by John Gould
(London: J. Gould, 1848)
Plate no. 10 vol. IV
U8000 NK10635/6 Rex Nan Kivell Collection

The original watercolour for this lithograph was painted by Elizabeth Gould in 1841 in New South Wales. Elizabeth Gould is one of many talented wives of artists in Australia whose major contribution to their husband's work has been neglected. (Anna Maria Lewin was another who painted and drew for her husband's work on birds.) Elizabeth Gould painted and drew over 600 illustrations for John Gould's publications.

Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus is now known as P. violaceus.


Fanny Elizabeth de Mole (1835-66)

Sturt pea, Plate VIII c.1861
hand coloured lithograph in her:
Wildflowers of South Australia (Adelaide, 1861)

Fanny de Mole migrated to South Australia in 1856. Wildflowers of South Australia is her only publication.


Louisa Atkinson (1834-72)

Spotted pardalote, scarlet honeyeater, superb blue wren
and striated pardalote
c.1865
ink and watercolour drawing
R11095

Caroline Louisa Waring Atkinson is better known for her writing and botanical knowledge than for her drawing ability. However she was skillful at sketching and painting and many of her images were later reproduced in Voice from the country (1978) and Excursions from Berrima (1980).


Marrianne Campbell (1827-1903)

Waratah, Telopia speciossima [sic] 1877
watercolour
T2513 NK7166/20 Rex Nan Kivell Collection

Marrianne Collison Campbell (nee Close) was an amateur botanical artist. She lived at Duntroon in Canberra and Wharf House in Sydney. Her paintings are featured in Joan Kerr's From Sydney Cove to Duntroon, a family album of early life in Australia published in 1982.

Many of Marrianne Collison Campbell's paintings are still with the Campbell descendants in Scotland.


Ellis Rowan (1848-1922)

Boronia pinnata Smith, Boronia pilosa
Labillardiere, Candollea circulata Labillardiere,
Stylidium gramminifolium
[sic] Schwartz c.1885
watercolour
R2639

Ellis Rowan was the epitome of the independent and professional woman artist of both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although a popular artist, she was given little credence by her fellow artists during her lifetime. Her paintings of Australian and New Guinean plants and birds painted during the years 1880 to 1921 have been widely promoted since her death.


Margaret Cochrane Scott (1825-1919)

Caladenia c.1895
watercolour
T2543 NK7166/29 Rex Nan Kivell Collection
Caladenia dilatata c.1895
watercolour
T2544 NK7166/30 Rex Nan Kivell Collection
Diuris maculata c.1895
watercolour
T2545 NK7166/31 Rex Nan Kivell Collection
Diuris pedunculata c.1895
watercolour
T2546 NK7166/32 Rex Nan Kivell Collection

Margaret Scott was a talented botanical artist who exhibited as early as 1859 in the South Australian Society of Arts' exhibition. After 1887 she painted only South Australian wildflowers. Her work gained popularity overseas but has only recently been given recognition in Australia.

These four watercolours were probably painted while she was living at Rock Tavern, near Norton Summit, in the Adelaide Hills.


Ellis Rowan (1848-1922)

Bird of paradise, New Guinea c.1917
watercolour on organdie
R2690

This watercolour was originally designed as one of 12 to be reproduced as placemats. Ellis Rowan visited New Guinea on two occasions in 1916 and 1917. The trips were exceedingly courageous ones in terms of her health and safety, but later she recalled that they were also extremely exciting and stimulating for her art.


Ida McComish (1885-1978)

Hibiscus insularis-endemic to Phillip Island, Nov 6, 1937
Page from album number 1
watercolour, photograph, specimens-seeds, foliage, flowers
R9635

Ida McComish was an artist and collector of specimens in exotic locations. This album is one of eight dating from 1928 to 1957 held in the National Library. The albums are particularly unusual, containing a variety of materials, specimens and watercolours.


Lilian Medland (1880-1955)

Plate G, 13 birds 1/2 natural size, 1937
watercolour
plate for unpublished book on Australian birds by Gregory Mathews
R6616

This watercolour is one of 53 plates depicting 883 Australian birds painted by Lilian Medland during the 1930s and sent to the bird collector and publisher, Gregory Mathews in London. The plates were never published.

Lilian Medland also worked for the Australian Museum in Sydney, painting 30 species of birds which were issued as postcards and as covers on the Australian museum magazine. During the 1950s she published paintings in Birds of paradise and bower birds (1950) and Birds of New Guinea (1956). Her work is characterised by a detailed scientific knowledge combined with great artistic skill.


Eirene Mort (1879-1977)

Gift card c.1950
intaglio print
S9652

This card was typical of those produced during the Depression years. Some were hand coloured and had a hand scripted greeting, also in colour. (Margaret Mort, personal communication, 1987)


Betty Temple-Watts (b.1900)

Lorikeets and cockatoos 1958
watercolour
Plate 16 in: Birds in the Australian high country
edited by H.J. Frith (Sydney: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1969)
R4806

This watercolour is one of 35 plates painted between 1958 and 1967 and reproduced in Birds in the Australian high country.

Betty Temple-Watts migrated to Australia in 1942 and lived in Canberra during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1959 she began a commission for the Post Office designing a series of bird stamps which were issued in 1964. In 1964 she also drew the designs for the Australian section of the British Ornithologists Union publication The new dictionary of birds.

Betty Temple-Watts travelled extensively around Australia, bird watching and painting.


Celia E. Rosser (b.1930)

Banksia paludosa R.Br.
photomechanical reproduction
in: The banksias by Celia Rosser and Alexander S. George
(London: Academic Press in association with Monash University, 1981-88)

In 1967 Celia Rosser published her first book, Wildflowers of Victoria. Since then she has been engaged on several projects to paint banksias for publication. The project for Monash University has become a major scientific and artistic achievement, resulting in publication of several volumes of The banksias.


Trisha Dixon (b.1953)

Historic gardens in New South Wales
and Victoria 1993-94

four cibachrome prints
from colour transparencies
P 577/13,15,21 P 626/9

Trisha Dixon was winner of the National Trust's and Sydney Morning Herald's 1990 New South Wales heritage photography award. Trisha has produced numerous publications including Gardens in time: in the footsteps of Edna Walling (1988), Monaro country (1988) and The country garden (1992). As the photographer for the Australian Garden History Society and Australia's Open Garden Scheme she travels the country, visiting and photographing the nation's finest gardens.


To MainMain
To IntroductionIntroduction
To Section 1Section 1. Over the Back Fence
To Section 2Section 2. Distant Views
To Section 3Section 3. Childrens Lives
To Section 4Section 4. Artists Books
To Section 5Section 5. Gardens, Plants and Bird
To Section 6Section 6. Self and Others
Copyright NoticeCopyright