The botanical paintings of Marianne North are bold, decisive, passionate and unconventional – rather like the woman who painted them.
Marianne North was born into a respectable family in 1830, the eldest daughter of Frederick North, Liberal MP for Hastings. She was taught to sing and paint and travelled in Europe like most young ladies of her generation but, unlike her contemporaries, she was not preparing herself for marriage.
On her mother’s death in 1855, North became the devoted companion of her father, having promised her mother she would never leave him. Father and daughter shared a love of natural history and botany and travelled together around the Mediterranean. On regular visits to Kew Gardens, North was intrigued by the collections of exotic flora, and longed to travel further afield to see tropical plants growing in the wild.
In 1869, North’s father died and, aged 40, her adventures began. As an independently wealthy woman, armed with letters of introduction and a pioneering spirit, North set off on a series of trips around the world, which would take her to America, Canada, Jamaica, Brazil, Tenerife, Japan, Singapore, Borneo, Java, Sri Lanka and India. Charles Darwin, a friend of her father, urged her to visit Australia and New Zealand, which she did, adding journeys to South Africa, the Seychelles and Chile, where she fulfilled a longing to paint the remarkable forests of Monkey Puzzle trees.
North had discovered oil painting in 1869 and found it a revelation, so much more suited to her purposes than the delicate watercolours used by other botanical artists. Her mission on travelling abroad was to record plants growing in their natural habitat: her paintings feature animals and insects, include background landscapes and the character of the terrain, and present an accurate record of the whole ecosystem. Botanists, among them Joseph Hooker, then Director of Kew Gardens, praised her work for its role in recording the flora and habitats already being lost through the destruction of native forests.
In the course of her travels, North discovered a new genus and four new species of plant, all of which are named after her in recognition of her achievement.
Having amassed several hundred paintings, North decided to give the collection to Kew Gardens. She offered to build a gallery where the public could marvel at the exotic delights of the natural world while taking a rest and enjoying a cup of tea. Joseph Hooker accepted her offer, but the refreshments were ruled out, scholars and botanists having no need for such respite.
Opened in 1882, the gallery was designed by the architectural historian James Fergusson and paid for by North. The inauspicious exterior belies the riches within, where 832 of North’s paintings are arranged geographically around the walls like an over-sized stamp album, dazzling the visitor with their jewel-like colour and detail. She surpasses her intention to educate by sharing her delight in the beauty and complexity of plants and creating a sense of wonder at the richness of the natural world.
North eschewed luxury on her trips and endured rough terrain, swarms of insects and long journeys on horseback to reach the plants she sought to paint. She avoided the social niceties of the English traveller abroad, preferring to travel alone off the beaten track, revelling in adventure and befriending natives. An unconventional woman, she described herself as a heathen and viewed marriage as an unnecessary restriction, considering the role of a wife to be no more than an upper servant.
Marianne North returned from her final voyage in 1885. Failing health imposed her retirement and she settled in a cottage in Gloucestershire where she continued to paint and created a garden full of unusual plants raised from cuttings from Kew. She relived her adventurous years through writing an autobiography, Recollections of a Happy Life, published after her death in 1890.
Further reading:
Marianne North, Recollections of a Happy Life Vols I and II, 2012
Michelle Payne, Marianne North: A Very Intrepid Painter, 2011
Laura Ponsonby, Marianne North at Kew Gardens, 1994
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