Ellen Cheeseman

Ellen Maud Cheeseman (6 September 1848 – 1928) was a painter and botanist from England who emigrated to New Zealand as a child.[1] Her watercolour paintings of New Zealand birds, animals and landscapes are in the permanent collection of Auckland War Memorial Museum.[2]

Watercolour on paper by Ellen Cheeseman of Metrosideros excelsa, Pōhutukawa

Biography

Cheeseman was born in England in 1848 and emigrated to New Zealand with her family, arriving in Auckland on 4 April 1854 on the Artemesia. Her father was Thomas Cheeseman, a Methodist minister who moved the family to New Zealand in the hope that the climate would cure a throat ailment he suffered from. She had four siblings: two brothers, William and Thomas, and two sisters, Emma and Clara.[1]

Cheeseman worked with her brother Thomas, the curator of Auckland Museum, on projects to document New Zealand's flora and wildlife. She produced detailed, coloured paintings of butterflies, lizards, insects, shells and birds.[3] In 1899 she and Thomas went on a government-funded trip to the Cook Islands to record the flora of the islands.[1]

Cheeseman was a member of the New Zealand Naturalist Society and went on field trips with the group, painting the landscapes of their destinations, such as Thames River and the Coromandel Peninsula.[4] Her art was also published in the Naturalist Society journal.[3]

Cheeseman's botanical art is also held in the New Zealand National Herbarium Network library in Auckland.[5]

References
  1. "Thomas Cheeseman (1846-1923) | NZETC". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  2. "Collections Online - Authored by: Cheeseman, Ellen Maud 1848-1928, Artist". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  3. Calhoun, Ann (2000). The Arts & Crafts Movement in New Zealand, 1870-1940: Women Make Their Mark. Auckland: Auckland University Press. p. 28.
  4. "On the heights of Coromandel". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  5. "Herbarium details: Auckland War Memorial Museum (AK)". www.nzherbaria.org.nz. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
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