Estelle van der Merwe

(3 April 1903-) Artist and marionette-constructor. Born in Germiston, Transvaal and from the age of 12 lived in Parys in the Orange Free State. In about 1930 she completed a one year art course at a technical school in Auckland Park. Painting became her source of a livelihood and she participated in many exhibitions and completed a number of commissions over the years.

Her passion however was the marionette, an interest sparked in the 1920s by an article by Tony Sarg on how to make and operate a marionette theatre. The first marionettes she constructed were characters from Jack and the Beanstalk.