A Medley of Flowers from Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope. Marianne North (1830-1890). c. 1882. Oil on board. H 35.2 x W 50.5 cm. Marianne North Gallery, Kew. Accession no. MN405, given by the artist, 1882. Photo credit: The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
While staying in Cape Town, North was greatly impressed by the colourful variety of the flowers. Travelling to Table Mountain was exhausting, and she records, on one occasion, being simply too tired to paint on the spot. However, in the "great old Dutch farm of Groote Post," where she was then staying,
The rooms were always full of pretty flowers. There was a hanging basket suspended from the middle of the ceiling in the sitting-room, filled with arums, ferns, and hanging creepers. Brackets also hung on the walls for the same purpose. Every morning the girls brought in fresh flowers, often from considerable distances, going out on horseback to seek them before breakfast. Miss Duckett [who was running the farm while her brother was away] always found time to arrange them, in spite of the quantity she had to do. [II: 226]
Most of North's work were at least sketched outdoors, even if she filled in the colours later; but here was an opportunity to paint some local species in comfort. Whatever the circumstances, her attention to detail was unfaltering. In the catalogue (no. 405), these are identified as follows:
On the right, the scarlet Sutherlandia frutescens, R. Br., followed by the white balls of the minute flowers of a Brunia? a blue and red Lobostemon (Boragineæ); below the Sutherlandia are female cones of Leucadendron platyspermum, R. Br., and the yellow heads of the male inflorescence of the same shrub ... with a purple Senecio between them. Next comes a kind of "Everlasting" (Helichrysum speciosissimum, Willd.) having white flower-heads with a yellow centre, and a blue Lobelia. Partly beneath the other flowers is the great Ground-orchid, Disa cornuta, Sw. with dark blue and white hooded flowers and thick leaves mottled with red; and lastly the beautiful Mimetes cucullata, R. Br. a proteaceous shrub having whitish flowers supported by pink bracts.
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Bibliography
The Gallery of Marianne North's Paintings of Plants and Their Homes, Royal Gardens. Kew. Descriptive Catalogue Designed by W. Botting Helmsley, ALS. London: 1882. v-vi. Google Books. Free to read.
A Medley of Flowers from Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope. Art UK. Web. 29 August 2023.
North, Marianne. Recollections of a Happy Life: being the autobiography of Marianne North. Vol. II. London and New York, Macmillan, 1893. Internet Archive, from a copy of a book in the Wellcome Library. Web. 29 August 2023.
Created 29 August 2023