Historical information

The artist: Marianne Louise Charlotte Amalie Wehl (19 Sept. 1867, Mt Gambier; 26 Oct. 1926, Melbourne), a flower painter who was active in South Australia and Victoria, and not to be confused with Marie Magdalene Wehl.

Connection with Baron von Mueller: Von Mueller’s younger sister, Clara married Doctor Eduard Wehl and they lived in South Australia. They had 14 children, 6 of whom collected and painted botanical studies – some now in the National Herbarium, Melbourne. A cousin of Doctor Wehl – Carl Wehl – married Sophia Caroline (née Gorte) and one of their daughters was Marianne Wehl. It is recorded that von Mueller visited the Wehls and D’Altons in Halls Gap (Henrietta D'Alton was also a painter of wildflowers), so it is hard to believe that there is no influence at least.

Von Mueller had over 1,400 collectors/artists working for him and 225 of them were women and children. Their work is housed in the National Herbarium, Melbourne. The donor believes that Marianne contributed to this work. There is no record of that, however, as only 169 of the artists have been identified, it may be a possibility.
Marianne was one of six children of Carl Jakob Wilhelm Wehl (1830–1899) and Sophia Caroline Wehl (née Gorte) (1843–1920). She never married. https://data.environment.sa.gov.au/Content/Publications/JABG34P001_Dowe.pdf

The plants: All of the plants painted by Marianne Wehl's in this donation were identified by Botanist Neil Marriott & Wendy Marriott, in July 2022.

Neil Marriott said that the quality and beauty of these botanical studies made it easy for them to identify all the plants. He suggested they may be some of the first paintings of Grampians wildflowers. This makes the paintings highly important scientifically and botanically. Visitors to WAMA will be able to compare them with today’s plants in the Endemic Garden. Neil marvelled that Marianne found the specimens, as some of them are endemic and found only in the highest parts of the Grampians (Mt Rosea, Mt William and Major Mitchell Plateau) and are listed as rare and endangered. Some of these same rare plants have now been propagated by the WAMA team and in winter 2022 were planted in WAMA's Endemic Garden.

This framed work is considered by him to be the most significant botanically.

Boronia pilosa – Hairy boronia. [Wikipedia says it’s a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia MH]
Pultenaea subalpina - Rosy Bush-pea. Grampians endemic listed as endangered and only found on the tops of Mt William, Major Mitchell Plateau and Mt Rosea - named for the Rosy Bush-pea that grows on its top!
This is the only rose-coloured bush pea in the entire genus, which occurs right across Australia!! We have plants ready to plant in the WAMA endemic garden!
Boronia latipinna - Grampians Boronia. Grampians endemic only found on the higher peaks of the central Grampians ranges - listed endangered.

NB In some records she is called Marianna (as the donor calls her) and in others Marianne.

Physical description

Three small paintings of pink wildflowers mounted together in original frame. The central image is an oval, flanked by two rectangular images. The frame is probably original – smooth gloss olive green simulating wood or bamboo. It has a new backing paper.

Inscriptions & markings

Each image LL ' MW' (underlined), central image has signature obscured by oval vignetted matt.
On the reverse side it is marked in black felt pen, “McLennan 106 Bennet Rd (4)” This refers to preparation (rematting / framing?) for exhibiting at Horsham Art Gallery in 1981.