Great Hornbill Birds. Marianne North (1830-1890). 1870s. Oil on paper. H25 x W 18.1 cm. Collection of the Herbarium, Library, Art & Archives, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Accession no. MNS46, given by Dame Janet Vaughan, 1978. Photo credit: The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
In her Recollections, North described how she stayed with the Resident Magistrate:
He took me and his little boy up the river one day for two miles, close under the opposite bank. Some of the trees were almost lying on the water. Two Kafir plants I drew in that position, with lianes hanging from them, and monkeys to please the child. We heard the leopards and baboons disputing and discussing our characters in the forests above, but the great beasts seldom showed themselves below, and did not like human society. Hornbills also showed their great beaks in the tree-branches. [I: 266]
The pleasure that North took in bird life evidently diverted her from her chief purpose, to depict the plants; from characterful paintings like this, it is clear that she might as easily have directed all her energies towards ornithology, had she so wished.
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Bibliography
Great Hornbill Birds. Art UK. Web. 30 August 2023.
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.
Created 30 August 2023