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拍品专文
Ellis Rowan was born and raised in Victoria, Australia, and she first exhibited at the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1872. Her mariage in 1873 to Frederick Rowan took her to New Zealand, a country she did not enjoy and as a result she plunged herself into her painting and began a life of compulsive travel and exploration that took her to India, Europe, North America and the Caribbean.
In 1916 having gained international recognition with her painting, she set off for New Guinea. She fulfilled her commission of 100 flower paintings to be used as designs for Royal Worcester services and returned to New Guinea a year later, this time to capture the birds of paradise and the butterflies and moths.
Rowan returned from New Guinea with three hundred sheets of watercolours, including 45 of the 52 known species of local birds of paradise, as well as her numerous studies of flowers, butterflies, moths and other insects. A letter written shortly after she returned recorded that she had 'just finished 2,175 butterflies and moths of New Guinea, that means work, as they are difficult to paint.'
Potentially the most interesting of all the butterflies in the present watercolour, is in the middle column, where there is an upper-/under -side of what could be a new species, or even new genus or melantine satyrid. The wing shape and pattern seem irreconcilable with any described species, yet look sufficiently convincing to suggest something unknown but closely related to the genus Melanitis.
For further information on the artist, see M. Hazzard, Australia's Brilliant Daughter, Ellis Rowan, Richmond, 1984; E. Rowan, A Flower Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand, Sydney, 1898; and Christie's sale catalogue, 16 May 1995, introduction to lots 201-222. Three watercolours in the sale, lots 218, 219 and 220, each sold for 20,700.
In 1916 having gained international recognition with her painting, she set off for New Guinea. She fulfilled her commission of 100 flower paintings to be used as designs for Royal Worcester services and returned to New Guinea a year later, this time to capture the birds of paradise and the butterflies and moths.
Rowan returned from New Guinea with three hundred sheets of watercolours, including 45 of the 52 known species of local birds of paradise, as well as her numerous studies of flowers, butterflies, moths and other insects. A letter written shortly after she returned recorded that she had 'just finished 2,175 butterflies and moths of New Guinea, that means work, as they are difficult to paint.'
Potentially the most interesting of all the butterflies in the present watercolour, is in the middle column, where there is an upper-/under -side of what could be a new species, or even new genus or melantine satyrid. The wing shape and pattern seem irreconcilable with any described species, yet look sufficiently convincing to suggest something unknown but closely related to the genus Melanitis.
For further information on the artist, see M. Hazzard, Australia's Brilliant Daughter, Ellis Rowan, Richmond, 1984; E. Rowan, A Flower Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand, Sydney, 1898; and Christie's sale catalogue, 16 May 1995, introduction to lots 201-222. Three watercolours in the sale, lots 218, 219 and 220, each sold for 20,700.