Rosa M. Spencer Bower

Agnes Rosa Marion Spencer Bower (née Dixon; 1865–1960) was a New Zealand watercolour artist. Her work is included in the permanent collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Biography Spencer Bower was the elder of two daughters of Marmaduke Dixon, a Canterbury landowner, and Eliza Agnes Wood. The couple married in England and moved to Dixon's Canterbury sheep station, Eyrewell, in 1860. An elder brother, also named Marmaduke Dixon, became prominent as a mountaineer. Spencer Bower was raised on the property and learnt drawing from her mother as a child. She first exhibited in 1888 at the annual exhibition of the Canterbury Society of Arts, and became a regular exhibitor until 1914; even while living in England, she sent artworks to Canterbury which were included in their exhibitions.

Personal life Spencer Bower married Anthony Spencer Bower in 1904; she was 38 years old and her husband was in his mid-50s. In 1905, she gave birth to twins: Olivia Spencer Bower, who became an artist, and Anthony Marmaduke Orme Spencer Bower.