Marian Bronsdon

Biographical information provided by Stefanie Lash, Archives New Zealand, for the He Tohu exhibition:

Emma Marian Playle, who went by Marian, was born in Surrey in 1859. Her parents were William Playle and Hephzibah Springfield. In 1884, at the age of 25, she married carpenter Josiah Bronsdon in Wandsworth. They had five children; the first two were born in England, and the last three in New Zealand. The family migrated to New Zealand in 1887, living in Coombes St in Wellington.

Marian was a painter who exhibited at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts for several years in a row, and she also held a full art-teacher’s certificate.  

After the death of youngest son Josiah in 1895 the Bronsdon family sold their Mt Cook, Wellington properties and returned to England. Marian died in 1935.