YOU just never know what you can find at an op shop - even priceless national treasures.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Volunteers from Vincentia Baptist Church Op Shop were stunned earlier this year when they realised two 110-year-old paintings from renowned artist Marian Ellis Rowan had been donated to them.
It was fortunate the works ended in the hands of volunteer Antony Bunyan who put his researcher's hat on.
Mr Bunyan was determined to get the background on the paintings.
Much digging later, he found out the op shop had been donated Ellis Rowan works now classed as national treasures by the National Library of Australia in Canberra.
Ellis Rowan (1848-1922) was an artist, naturalist and explorer.
Her works were showcased across Australia, Europe and the United States.
The National Library houses the largest Ellis Rowan collection in the world with 900 pieces, almost a third of her works.
Mr Bunyan said the paintings were part of an anonymous local donation and possibly came from a deceased estate.
The paintings caught his eye straight away.
“It’s my job here is to research the more difficult things and my background is in art,” he said.
“I can tell a real hand done painting and so we knew these paintings were original.
“As an artist, I can see when something has been painted well and I could see they were not only painted well but quite old and so it perked up my interest.”
Mr Bunyan knew research was needed and he had to determine if the paintings were by a renowned artist.
It took him two weeks to hunt down what he needed. He said Ellis Rowan had an unusual signature, which he did not recognise.
The only word he could work out was Ellis and found the main reference for her on a website for English artists.
He then did an image search and started to finds images of Ellis Rowan’s works.
Once the pieces of the puzzle started to fit in place, the excitement increased.
He found a number of documents had been written about the artist.
“She was a really prolific illustrator as well,” he said.
Mr Bunyan’s research indicated the donated paintings were some of Ellis Rowan’s earlier works.
The next step was to take what he found back to the op shop committee and work out their next move.
Selling the paintings, ‘Flowers on the banks of the lake’ and ‘Ducks in the lake’ was a possibility but they needed work.
The restoration process would have cost the op shop money and was ruled out.
“We had these old paintings, their frames were in really bad condition and I could tell they were old,” he said,
He sent some information to his contacts and they were told the value was $600 to $1000.
Work to conserve the paintings so they did not deteriorate further was also needed.
Mr Bunyan then discovered the National Library had a significant Ellis Rowan collection.
Contact was made with the library and an offer made by the op shop committee to donate the works to the collection which was accepted and the works recently collected.
Mr Bunyan said it was pleasing he, the op shop and the church all played roles in saving these works.
“They could have ended up on the tip,” he said.
“The satisfaction is that it’s kind of my job to recognised these things before someone sticks them out in the shop for $2.”
He is now doing research on a set of Japanese antique plates and ceramics.
Mike Proud from the National Library said it was wonderful they had two additions to the collection.
About the artist
Source National Library
Marian Ellis Ryan (1848–1922) was born in Melbourne.
Her father was a grazier and her maternal grandfather was John Cotton, who wrote and illustrated two books on English birds. She attended a girls’ school in Melbourne, but had no training in art. In 1873 she married Frederic Rowan, a British army officer.
They lived in New Zealand for four years before returning to Melbourne, where Frederic pursued a business career. He died in 1892.
As a young woman, Rowan began to paint wildflowers, birds, insects and butterflies and she continued to do so for the rest of her life.
Her interest in botany was encouraged by Ferdinand von Mueller, who was a friend of her father.
From 1879 onwards she exhibited works at numerous international exhibitions and was awarded 10 gold medals, 15 silver medals and four bronze medals.
She was awarded the highest honours at the 1888 Centennial International Exhibition in Melbourne. She travelled widely in Australia and, in particular, made six trips to Queensland.
After the death of her husband, she spent many years overseas. In England, Queen Victoria accepted three of her paintings and in the United States Rowan illustrated three botanical books by Alice Lounsberry.
Rowan twice visited Papua and New Guinea in 1916–18 and, with the help of native guides, succeeded in finding and painting from life 25 species of birds of paradise.
She exhibited 189 paintings in Melbourne in 1918 and two years later she held an exhibition of 1000 paintings in Sydney, the largest solo exhibition to have been held in Australia.
Acquisition
In 1921 the Australian Government agreed to purchase the paintings of Rowan, but criticism in Parliament and disagreements about the price caused delays.
In 1923 the Government finally purchased 952 paintings from Rowan’s sister, Blanche Ryan.
The collection was stored in the Treasury vaults in Melbourne until 1933, when 947 of the paintings were transferred to the Commonwealth National Library. (The other five were placed in Government House.) In 1953 many of the paintings were lent by the Library to Australian diplomatic posts and other government agencies. Most were returned to the Library in 1968–70, but 28 were lost.
The Collection
The Ellis Rowan Collection comprises 919 watercolours and gouaches painted between about 1870 and 1920.
About two-thirds of the paintings depict Australian wildflowers, while one-third are of flowers and birds of Papua New Guinea and the Torres Strait Islands.
There are 81 bird paintings. Most of the Australian works were painted in Queensland and Western Australia, but flowers of all the states are represented in the collection.
Many of the paintings contain brief inscriptions on the reverse, giving the name of the flower or bird, or the place where they were seen.
Some of the inscriptions were written by Rowan, others by associates such as Ferdinand von Mueller and C.J. White. The early paintings are generally dated, but virtually none is dated after 1889.
The collection in the Library is probably less than one-third of Rowan’s total output.
She had remarkable skill and was able to apply the paints without the aid of pencil under-drawings.
Although many of the works lack inscriptions, the subjects are portrayed accurately and can be identified with reasonable certainty. Rowan had rudimentary training as a botanist and consequently she was not a botanical illustrator like Ferdinand Bauer.
She did not set out systematically to paint the flora of a region.
Her prime task was to make artistic compositions and she tended to paint the more colourful and attractive flowers in close-up compositions, juxtaposed again scenery or a distant sky.
She often painted bunches of wildflowers.