sketcher, was born in London on 13 November 1807, daughter of George Cowie, a bookseller, and Rachel, née Buxton. With her mother and three sisters, Emma arrived at Hobart Town on board the Eveline on 7 December 1834 to join her brothers Robert and Anthony. She lived with Robert at his home, Brookstead, Avoca, where, on 3 May 1836, she married John Lewis von Stieglitz. There were no children of the marriage. In about 1839 the von Stieglitzes moved to Ballan, Victoria, some 40 miles from Melbourne, to a property called Ballanee. They returned to Ireland about 1860 and settled at Altmore, County Tyrone where, on 22 August 1868, John died. By November 1875 his widow had returned to Tasmania and was living in Elizabeth Street, Launceston. She remained there until her death from pleurisy, on 1 November 1880. She was buried in the Cypress Street Cemetery, Launceston, although her headstone was subsequently re-erected in the Church of England Cemetery, Evandale.
Emma von Stieglitz’s sketchbooks (p.c.) have been published in part in two booklets, Early Van Diemen’s Land 1835-1860 (Hobart 1963), edited by K.R. von Stieglitz, and Emma Von Stieglitz: Her Port Phillip and Victorian Album , published by Fullers Bookshop, Hobart (1964). These pencil and watercolour views, largely of family homes and domestic affairs, range from the interior view of a settler’s hut (1841) and bush kitchen (1854) to the wash-place on the Werribee River at Ballanee (November 1849) and a shepherd’s watch-box (March 1854). Poor Mungit’s Grave, Ballan (November 1852) and Deserted Mia Mias at Villamanatta (25 March 1854) indicate that the artist’s interests and sympathies were not entirely confined to the affairs of white settlers.
Portraits of a Tasmanian Aboriginal man and woman forwarded to the 1855 Paris Universal Exhibition by her brother-in-law, Frederick Lewis von Stieglitz of Killymoon, Fingal, were catalogued with the statement that they were intended as 'a correct idea of the appearance and character of Tasmanian aborigines, and by no means as works of art, conscious that as such they are altogether undeserving of notice’ – comments probably emanating from the modest Emma herself, whose paintings they undoubtedly were. The perceived inferiority, however, lay in being colonial rather than female, similar comments being recorded at the same exhibition from a male Tasmanian photographer, Douglas Thomas Kilburn .
Emma von Steiglitz’s Ballan House (1851, w/c) and Killymoon, Tasmania (pen and wash) are in the La Trobe Library but most of her work is still held privately.
- Writers:
- Glover, Margaret
Note: Heritage biography.
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
