Johanna Ellaphie Ward-Hilhorst (10 July 1920

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

– 30 June 1994

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

) was a South African botanical artist. She received her early education in

. After matriculating from

Pretoria Girls' High School Pretoria High School for Girls (often called PHSG), is a full-government, fee-charging, English-medium high school for girls located in Hatfield, Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is the sister school to Pretoria Boys High S ...

she started work in 1939 as a

cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

in the Survey Department of the

Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand (, ; ; locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, w ...

Gold Mines. At the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she moved to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

to study

watercolour painting Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...

under the eye of her uncle Gerhardus Hilhorst, a distinguished natural history artist. Returning to South Africa, she worked in the advertising world as a freelance commercial artist in

and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

until her retirement in 1970 when she finally had the time to indulge her talents as a botanical artist. Since she always had a love and fascination for the genus ''

Pelargonium ''Pelargonium'' () is a genus of flowering plants that includes about 280 species of perennial plant, perennials, succulent plant, succulents, and shrubs, common name, commonly called geraniums, pelargoniums, or storksbills. ''Geranium'' is also ...

'', she set about illustrating all the known species. This massive project resulted in the publication of three volumes in 1977, 1981 and 1988. The entire collection of the original 314 water-colours and 160 habit sketches in pencil was acquired by the

Brenthurst Library The Brenthurst Library is a private repository of Africana in Parktown, Johannesburg built by Harry Oppenheimer in 1984 as he started to disengage from the family's mining interests. It houses a collection of some 20,000 volumes, including rare ...

in 1989. Completed plates of ''Pelargonium'' were found in her studio after her violent death.Art Experts, Inc.
/ref> She was a prolific worker, finishing over 800 botanical watercolour paintings in 24 years. Other genera on which she worked included ''Sarcocaulon'', ''Haemanthus'', ''

Rhus Sumac or sumach ( , )—not to be confused with poison sumac—is any of the roughly 35 species of flowering plants in the genus ''Rhus'' (and related genera) of the cashew and mango tree family, Anacardiaceae. However, it is '' Rhus coriaria' ...

'', ''

Plectranthus ''Plectranthus'' is a genus of about 85 species of flowering plants from the sage family, Lamiaceae, found mostly in southern and tropical Africa and Madagascar. Common names include spur-flower. ''Plectranthus'' species are herbaceous perennial ...

'', ''Hessea'', ''Strumaria'', as well as ''

Gasteria ''Gasteria'' is a genus of succulent plants, native to South Africa and the far south-west corner of Namibia. Naming The genus is named for its stomach-shaped flowers (''"gaster"'' is Greek for "stomach") that result from the swollen base on the ...

'', ''Serruria'' and ''Diascia''. She was in great demand by botanists to illustrate plants from their particular fields of interest. 42 of her paintings were published in ''Fiowering Plants of Africa'' and she also made frequent contributions t
''Bothalia''
''Aloe''
''SA Journal of Botany''
''National Cactus & Succulent Journal'', ''Cactus & Succulent Journal (USA)'' an

. Examples of her work are in the permanent collection of th
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, USA., the Shirley Sherwood Collection as well as many important private collections.

Awards and honours

Th
Botanical Society of South Africa
awarded her the

Cythna Letty Cythna Lindenberg Letty (1 January 1895, in Standerton – 3 May 1985, in Pretoria), was a South African botanical artist and is regarded as a doyenne of South African botanical art by virtue of the quality and quantity of her meticulously ex ...

Medal in 1988: th
South African Association of Botanists
conferred the Certificate of Merit on her contribution to systematic botany and in 1990 she received a Gold Medal for the ''Haemanthus'' paintings at the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Exhibition in London. She is commemorated in ''Pelargonium ellaphieae'' E. M. Marais, ''Gasteria ellaphieae'' E.van Jaarsveld and ''Tylecodon ellaphieae'' Van Jaarsv.

Publications

*1984 ''A Revision of the genus Haemanthus'' - with Deirdre Snijman (''Journal of South African Botany'' Suppl. vol. 12) *1988 ''Pelargoniums of Southern Africa'' (3 vols.) - with J. J. A. Van der Walt, P.J. Vorster (Juta) *1994 ''Gasterias of South Africa'' - with Ernst J. van Jaarsveld (Fernwood Press) *1995 ''Ericas of South Africa'' - with Dolf Schumann and Gerhard Kirsten (Fernwood Press)

Links and sources

Botanical Artists' Association of Southern Africa (BAASA)

Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward-Hilhorst, Ellaphie South African botanical illustrators 1920 births 1994 deaths 20th-century South African painters 20th-century South African women artists South African emigrants to the Netherlands