Captured Flowers

The capture of South Australia’s wildflowers and plants in paintings and sketches began early in the colony’s history. Flower painting was considered an acceptable genteel pastime for women and girls. It kept ladies occupied and close to home. Some however developed an interest in local flora which led them beyond their cultivated gardens. They followed their passion for native plants across bushland, mountains and desert. Along the way they became highly skilled flower painters and several developed into brilliant botanical artists.

There are considerable differences between botanic illustration, art and flower painting but mostly it’s about intent. The central aim of the first two is to contribute to the scientific record. Botanic illustration is more often in black and white and depicts life cycles of plants, seeds, fruit, leaves, root system. Botanic art has a similar aim, to record scientific detail. However it tends to be in colour and more aesthetically rendered, though still highly accurate. Flower painting is much more about what pleases the artist. Flower painters may also be botanical artists and illustrators and vice versa.

One of the colony’s first botanical artists was Fanny Elizabeth de Mole. In 1857 at the age of 22, and in part due to ill health, Fanny migrated from England to join two of her brothers. Within four years she had written and illustrated Wild flowers of South Australia, the first book on South Australia’s flora. It contained containing twenty high quality hand-coloured plates. In 1861 only a hundred copies of the original were produced. Five years after the publication of Wildflowers Fanny died of tuberculosis at Willunga.

Within the first fifty years of colonisation some noteworthy female flower painters emerged. These included English flower painter Eliza Stockholm Strawbridge who produced a well-received watercolour collection of Kangaroo Island wildflowers. The widely- travelled Sarah Kay, another water-colourist, painted flora around McLaren Vale and was a regular exhibitor at the Society of Arts. Annie Laughton and Margaret Scott were also painting the colony’s flowers. According to later South Australian artist Shirley Cameron Wilson, Annie Laughton preferred to paint smaller wildflowers together with sprays of native grasses. The Art Gallery of South Australia holds several of her works in both watercolour and oil. Margaret Scott travelled by horse and cart around the Montacute area, returning many times to portray the same fragile plants rather than picking them. She was better-known overseas than at home. Several of her pieces were purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum after a 1900 Women’s Exhibition in London. The Botanic Gardens of South Australia library holds an album of her watercolours.

One of South Australia’s best-known botanical illustrators emerged just a little later. Rosa Catherine Fiveash was born in Adelaide in 1854 and studied at the Adelaide Art School of Design. She chose to specialise in painting Australian flora which remained her lasting passion. Rosa also introduced the art of china painting to Adelaide and was a highly respected art teacher. One of her students was Alison Ashby, a great botanical artist who painted 1,500 species of wildflowers. Rosa was renowned for her precision and patience, sometimes waiting weeks for a single orchid to open before capturing its image. In 1900 the governor, Lord Tennyson and Robert Barr Smith purchased one of her botanic portfolios as a gift to the colony. You can view the State Library's collection of Rosa Fiveash online.