Pendulous Sparaxis and Long-Tailed Finch in Van Staaden's Kloof. Marianne North (1830-1890). c. 1882. Oil on board. H 50.4 x W 35.2 cm. Marianne North Gallery, Kew. Accession no. MN428, given by the artist, 1882. Photo credit: The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
North was interested in the fauna as well as the flora of the places she visited, and indeed they often had a symbiotic relationship, with the birds, for example, acting as pollinators. She often mentions the birds she sees and their roles in the natural environment, and on one return to England kept several "little singing-birds" from Brazil on the spare berth in her cabin (I: 189), much to the delight of other passengers' children. These were given to her nieces. Like some of her remarks about the indigenous peoples she encountered, importing such birds (with small chance of survival in a different clime) would be frowned on now. But it does tell of her delight in these exotic songsters. Here, the finch, with its long drooping tail plumage, does much to complement the gracefully hanging flowers, and the hazy mountain background evokes an authentic sense of place.
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Image download, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. The image can be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
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.
North, Marianne. Recollections of a Happy Life: being the autobiography of Marianne North. Vol. I. London and New York, Macmillan, 1893. Internet Archive, from a copy of a book in the Wellcome Library. Web. 29 August 2023.
Pendulous Sparaxis and Long-Tailed Finch in Van Staaden's Kloof. Art UK. Web. 29 August 2023.
Created 29 August 2023