sketcher and art teacher, was born in South Australia, youngest of the four children of James William Lewis, postmaster-general of South Australia, and Esther (or Hester), née Read. She won the prize for the most meritorious drawing by a pupil of the School of Design at the 1864 exhibition of the South Australian Society of Arts with a copy of a horse’s head from (a print of) Rosa Bonheur’s Horse Fair ; C.E. Baker won another prize at the exhibition for the same subject. In the following year’s exhibition Ellen Lewis was again awarded first prize in this category and shared first prize for the best 'crayon’ (probably pastel) drawing by a young lady with E.E. Randall . In 1866 she received second prize, after Miss Rowe , for the most meritorious drawing by a pupil of the School of Design, both being considered 'persevering pupils and we wish for the state of their advancement that they had something better to copy from than those abominable crayon studies of Jullien’. Lewis had copied a head.
Ellen Lewis won two prizes for her crayon drawings at the 1867 exhibition – one being in the section reserved for 'Young Ladies born in the colony’ – and, newly graduated, received the prize for the best pen-and-ink drawing by a lady amateur in 1870. In the late 1890s she was employed as drawing mistress at Adelaide’s Advanced School for Girls.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
