West Australian Vegetation. Marianne North (1830-1890). Early 1880s. Oil on board. H 50.7 x W 35.2 cm. Marianne North Gallery, Kew. Accession no. MN772, given by the artist, 1882. Photo credit: The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The "vegetation" depicted here is described in more detail in Kew's "Collections" as "[f]lowers and fruiting cones in various stages of development, of Banksia coccinea. R. Br.; and flowers of a climbing Papilionacea (Gompholobium polymorphum, R. Br.), with a distant view of King Georges Sound." But no particular botanical knowledge is required to appreciate the impact of this memorable painting. Charles Darwin's response when North showed him her "Australian pictures" seems quite justified. He wrote to her afterwards,
To the present time I am often able to call up with considerable vividness scenes in various countries which I have seen, and it is no small pleasure; but my mind in this respect must be a mere barren waste compared with your mind. — I remain, dear Miss North, yours, truly obliged, Charles Darwin." [Qtd. in North 216.]
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
"772. West Australian Vegetation." Kew (Collections). Web. 19 September 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. 19 September 2023.
West Australian Vegetation. Art UK. Web. 19 September 2023.
Created 29 August 2023