Ellen Maud Cheeseman (6 September 18481928) was a painter and botanist from England who emigrated to New Zealand as a child. Her watercolour paintings of New Zealand birds, animals and landscapes are in the permanent collection of

Auckland War Memorial Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum (), also known as Auckland Museum, is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building constructed in the 1920s and 1950s, stands on Observatory ...

Biography

Cheeseman was born in England in 1848 and emigrated to New Zealand with her family, arriving in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

on 4 April 1854 on the ''Artemesia.'' Her mother was Eliza Cawkwell and her father, was Thomas Cheeseman (snr). She had four siblings: two brothers, William and

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, and two sisters, Emma and

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. 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. In 1899 she and Thomas went on a government-funded trip to the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

to record the flora of the islands. 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 The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

and the

Coromandel Peninsula The Coromandel Peninsula () on the North Island of New Zealand extends north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier protecting the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the west from the Pacific Ocean ...

. Her art was also published in the Naturalist Society journal. Cheeseman's botanical art is also held in the New Zealand National Herbarium Network library in Auckland. File:Thames (48753677211).jpg, Watercolour of ''Thames River with dinghy tied to end of jetty'' by Ellen Cheeseman File:Thames (48753221697).jpg, Watercolour of ''Thames River with native canoe in foreground, wooden dwelling in background'' by Ellen Cheeseman

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheeseman, Ellen 1848 births 1928 deaths British emigrants to New Zealand 19th-century New Zealand botanists 19th-century New Zealand painters People associated with the Auckland War Memorial Museum 20th-century New Zealand botanists