How I came to choose Marianne North as my subject near my family went to Kew Gardens a couple of years ago. We came across a small building called the Marianne North Gallery. We decided to look inside and what I saw made quite an impression on me. All the paintings were crammed together, hung so closely with no interfering space. It was quite unlike any gallery I’ve seen before immediately I felt drawn in and curious about the different scenes shown in the paintings, the subject mainly plants. Unlike a traditional botanical artist, Marianne North chose to paint plants as she put them ‘in their homes’. It seemed incredible to me that all these paintings, over 800, were done by one woman. When I discovered that the paintings been executed within a 14-year period and what’s more she funded and oversaw the gallery herself the achievement has seemed even more impressive.
North, M., Mills, C. and Botanic, R. (2018). Marianne North : the Kew collection. London: Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens. Marianne North Gallery (2018) photograph
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