Description
This lavishly-illustrated book re-assesses the work of the nineteenth-century botanical painter Marianne North (1830-1890) and the purpose-built gallery that houses her paintings at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. Lynne Howarth-Gladston, a trained botanical illustrator and scholar, re-examines North's working methods, which extend beyond those of conventional botanical illustration, and discusses North's painterly techniques, in addition to her use of photography as a possible aid to her extraordinarily prolific output. Marianne North: A Victorian Painter for the 21st Century situates North both as an unconventional botanical painter and as a technically progressive artist who melded differing stylistic approaches, techniques and media from both scientific and aesthetic perspectives. The study presents North as a progressive, multi-faceted individual who was rooted in the complex circumstances of her own time. Yet it also reveals how her legacy continues to resonate with the concerns
