Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/mary-ellen-marsden

Birth Place

NSW

Biography

sketcher and poet, was the third daughter and sixth child of Rev. Samuel Marsden and Elizabeth, née Fristan, of Parramatta, New South Wales. She accompanied her father to New Zealand in 1830. Later that year she married John Betts in Sydney. An unsigned and undated portrait (Mitchell Library), presumed to have been painted about this time and attributed to Richard Read junior , shows Mary in the act of painting a flower in her sketchbook. The specimen she is copying stands in a vase on the table in front of her and her box of watercolours is at her side, but none of the flower paintings she presumably produced have been identified. There are, however, surviving sketches attributed to the Marsden daughters with family papers in England. As Mary Betts, she published a tribute to her father, Lines Written on the 100th Anniversary of the Birthday of the Rev. Samuel Marsden (Sydney 1871). This entry is a stub. You can help DAAO by submitting a biography. Writers: Staff Writer Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1806

Summary

Female colonial poet, watercolourist and sketcher who posed for another painter in the act of painting flowers, although no floral still-lifes by her have been found.

Gender

Female

Died

1885

Age at death

79