Rosa Catherine Fiveash

Rosa Catherine Fiveash (22 July 1854, Adelaide – 13 February 1938, Adelaide) was an Australian botanical artist, illustrator and art teacher. She was a pioneer of china painting who introduced the technique to Adelaide.

Her best known paintings were done in collaboration with Professor Richard Sanders Rogers, published in South Australian Orchids in 1911.

Life and education Rosa Catherine Fiveash was born on 22 July 1854 in Adelaide, becoming the youngest child of businessman and superintendent of the Blinman and Yudanamutana copper mines Robert Archibald Fiveash and his wife Margaret, née Rees. From 1881 to 1888 she studied at the Adelaide School of Art. While studying under Harry Pelling Gill, Principal, and Louis Tannert, Master of the School of Painting, Fiveash chose painting of Australian flora as her specialization. Achieving high grades, she gained her art teacher's certificate from the Adelaide School of Art in 1888, and three years later, received accreditation from South Kensington in London. After graduation Fiveash taught art privately and at Tormore House School in North Adelaide for many years.

After painting Fiveash's works were prepared for lithography by the South Australian Government lithographer Haucourt Barrett, who received a smaller share of credit comparing to Fiveash. Fiveash finished nearly 70 plates for Brown when the project fell through due to the lack of money.

Fiveash's next commission was to illustrate the paper by Professor Edward C. Stirling Description of a New Genus and Species of Masupialia, Notorycytes Typhlops published in 1891. Their collaboration spanned thirty years.

Exhibitions

1888 – Adelaide School of Art, Adelaide Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium, Adelaide, SA 1906 – Orchid paintings 1911 – An Introduction to the Study of South Australian Orchids 1922 – Flora of South Australia 1926 – Illustrated Australian Encyclopaedia 1974 – Australian Orchids 1982 – Rosa Fiveash's Australian orchids: a collection of paintings by Rosa Catherine Fiveash 1982 – Rosa Fiveash's Australian orchids 2017 – Angela Valamanesh: everybody's everything: insect/orchid: 20 August -1 October 2017 (about artist Angela Valamanesh)