Ella Du Cane (1874-1943) was a British artist best known for her watercolors of landscapes and exotic locales.

Early life

Ella Mary Du Cane was the third and youngest daughter of politician and colonial administrator Sir

Charles Du Cane Sir Charles Du Cane (5 December 1825 – 25 February 1889) was a British Conservative Party politician and colonial administrator who was a Member of Parliament between 1852 and 1854 and Governor of Tasmania from 1868 to 1874. Du Cane was born ...

and his wife, Georgiana Susan Copley. Through her mother, she was the great-granddaughter of the artist,

John Singleton Copley John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an Anglo-American painter, active in both colonial America and England. He was probably born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Anglo-Irish. Afte ...

. She was born in

Hobart, Tasmania Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-smalle ...

in the last year of her father's five-year term as

Governor of Tasmania The governor of Tasmania is the representative in the Australian state of Tasmania of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The incumbent governor is Barbara Baker, who was appointed in June 2021. The official residence of the ...

, shortly before the family returned to their country house at

Braxted Park Braxted Park, formerly called Braxted Lodge, is a country house in the Queen Anne style set in a landscaped 2,000 acre park near the village of Great Braxted, Essex. In the Domesday Book of 1086, Eudo Dapifer is shown as owner of the manor. All Sa ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. In Essex, Charles was made a

Knight Commander Commander ( it, Commendatore; french: Commandeur; german: Komtur; es, Comendador; pt, Comendador), or Knight Commander, is a title of honor prevalent in chivalric orders and fraternal orders. The title of Commander occurred in the medieval mili ...

of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

and served as Chairman of the

Board of Customs HM Customs (His or Her Majesty's Customs) was the national Customs service of England (and then of Great Britain from 1707, the United Kingdom from 1801) until a merger with the Department of Excise in 1909. The phrase 'HM Customs', in use si ...

. Her sister Florence was born in 1869. Ella made watercolor paintings and Florence was a writer. After their father died in 1889 they decided that they would travel the world unchaperoned. They visited China, Japan, Egypt, the Canary Islands and Madeira.Mark Griffiths.
The Lotus Quest: In Search of the Sacred Flower
'. St. Martin's Press; 6 July 2010. . p. 93.

Career

Ella Du Cane came into artistic prominence in 1893 when she exhibited at an exhibition of the prestigious New Society of Painters in Water Colours.

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

took a personal interest in her work, acquiring 26 of Du Cane's works between December 1895 and August 1898. With success came opportunities for travel. A 1902 exhibition of water color drawings of the West Indies was followed in 1904 by a show of pictures of Japan. In 1905 Du Cane was hired by

A & C Black A & C Black is a British book publishing company, owned since 2002 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The company is noted for publishing '' Who's Who'' since 1849. It also published popular travel guides and novels. History The firm was founded in 18 ...

to provide illustrations for ''The Italian Lakes'' (1905), with descriptions by Richard Bagot. The company also used several of her Japan pictures in a book by John Finnemore. Building on her success, Du Cane arranged with Black to do a book on Japanese gardens with text written by her sister, Florence, a book released in 1908 as ''The Flowers and Gardens of Japan''. The following year, the sisters' second book, ''The Flowers and Gardens of Madeira'' appeared. In later years, Ella continued to travel and paint, and never married. She continued to live with her mother and sister in Essex, the family moving to an estate called Mountains, on a hillside site near

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea ...

, after selling

in 1919. Ella Du Cane died of unknown causes on 25 November 1943 at Mountains. She is buried with her sisters at All Saints Church,

Great Braxted Great Braxted is a village between Great Totham and Tiptree in Essex, England. The population as of the 2011 census was 130. The local manor house is known as Braxted Park. The medieval All Saints' church is contained within its 2,000-acre estat ...

.Redfoot 56.

Works

File:El Japón pg 1.jpg File:El Japón pg 25.jpg File:El Japón pg 56.jpg File:El Japón pg 8.jpg File:El Japón pg 41.jpg File:El Japón pg 105.jpg File:El Japón pg 65.jpg File:El Japón pg 76.jpg File:El Japón pg 36.jpg File:El Japón pg 81.jpg File:El pabellón de las mil campanitas.jpg

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Du Cane, Ella 1874 births 1943 deaths 19th-century English painters 20th-century English painters British women painters English illustrators English watercolourists 20th-century British women artists 19th-century British women artists Women watercolorists

Early life

Career

Works

References

Further reading

External links