Queer Places:
Marianne North House, 77 Old London Rd, Hastings TN35 5PQ, UK
Marianne North Gallery, 193 Kew Rd, Richmond TW9 2AA, UK
St Kenelm Churchyard
Alderley, Stroud District, Gloucestershire, England
Marianne
North (24 October 1830 – 30 August 1890) was a prolific English
Victorian
biologist and
botanical artist, notable for her plant and landscape paintings, her
extensive foreign travels, her writings, her plant discoveries and the
creation of her gallery at the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Her friendship with
Amelia Edwards began shortly
after the death of Edwards's parents and in mutual admiration—both women
were independent, adventurous, clever, and accomplished. Yet over the
course of a decade the relationship grew somewhat tortured for Edwards.
The extent of her affection for North was not mutual, and it came to be
seen by North as too much, too intense. Letters between the two women
gathered in emotion and heat, revealing Edwards's desire to keep her
friend close and the pullback from North as she gently dodged Edwards's
reach and made plans to travel the world in search of exotic flowers to
paint. Although the two did remain friends for life, stoking each other's
fame aml careers, the intimacy of their friendship was diminished and
Edwards was gutted by it. A phase of deep melancholy followed, and several
illnesses slowed Edwards down. She entered a depression, one where in her
darkest hours she lamented, "My heart no longer beats faster at the sight
of a new or kindly & beautiful face. I hope nothing from it."'
North was born at Hastings Lodge, on the corner of Ashburnham Road and
Old London Road, Hastings (a convent now occupies the site),
the eldest daughter of a prosperous land-owning family descended from the
Hon.
Roger North, younger son of
Dudley North, 4th Baron North. Her father was
Frederick North, a Norfolk
Deputy Lieutenant and
Justice of the Peace, and
Liberal
M.P. for Hastings. Her mother, Janet, was the daughter of
Sir John Marjoribanks M.P., 1st Baronet of Lees in the County of
Berwick.
She was the eldest of three children.[2]
The 1851 Census shows Marianne (20), her sister
(13), their parents, a governess and five other servants living in
Hastings Lodge. The family was one of the most prestigious in town, and
was related to Countess Waldegrave. North trained as a vocalist under
Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby, but her voice failed, and she then devoted
herself to painting flowers. After the death of her mother in 1855, she
constantly travelled with her father, who was then member of parliament
for Hastings. After her sister married in 1864 and her father lost his seat in
parliament, the two spent even more time travelling, visiting Switzerland
and the South Tyrol.[2]
They travelled in Syria and along the Nile in 1865–67. Her father became
ill in the Alps in 1869, and she brought him back to Hastings, where he
died. Two years later, with a large inheritance and as mistress of her own
destiny, she forsook Hastings upper-class society and decided to travel
the world painting plants and flowers.
She
first travelled and made paintings in Sicily.[2][3]
North lived in luxury and received a large inheritance, which she kept
by remaining unmarried. The
family had homes in Hastings and London in this period. Her interest in
botany may have stemmed from her father's acquaintance with Sir
Joseph Dalton Hooker, director of
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Her first watercolour landscapes were
undertaken on a trip to Europe with her sister and father.[2]
In 1871, aged 41, she sold Hastings Lodge and undertook her first great
trip.
In 1871–1872, she travelled to Canada, the United States and
Jamaica,
and spent a year in
Brazil,
where she did much of her work at a hut in the depths of a forest. In
1875, after a few months in
Tenerife,
she began a journey round the world, and for two years painted the flora
of California, Japan,
Borneo,
Java and
Ceylon. During her visits to California, she recorded her concern with
the destruction of the redwoods.
She spent all of 1878 in various parts of
India.
In 1878 The Graphic reported an exhibition of Marianne North's
works at
Kensington, in which 512 of her oil paintings were put on public
display. In a long article, the critic praised North for "her freedom of
hand, the purity and brilliancy of colour and the accurate draughtsmanship
of a consummate artist".[5]
She offered to give the collection to the
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and to erect a gallery to house them.
This offer was accepted, and the new buildings, designed by
James Fergusson, were begun that year.
At
Charles Darwin's suggestion, North went to Australia in 1880, and for
a year painted there and in
New Zealand.[6]
On her return, she presented Darwin the shrub 'Australian Sheep' (Raoulia
eximia) as a gift and showed him her Australian pictures.[6]
Her paintings of
Banksia attenuata,
B. grandis and
B. robur were highly regarded.
Her gallery at Kew was opened in 1882. On display for the opening of the
gallery were 800 oil on cardboard paintings, which represented twenty
years of North's life and travels.
The gallery is unusual because it contains almost the entire work of one
artist. It is still one of the popular attractions of Kew Garden, and the
paintings remain in their original Victorian arrangement.
In 1883, after a visit to South Africa, during which trip she called on
the botanical artist
Katharine Saunders, an additional room was opened at the Kew gallery,
and in 1884–1885 North worked in the
Seychelles and in
Chile.
When ill-health curtailed her travelling she moved to
Alderley, Gloucestershire[9]
where she died on 30 August 1890
and is buried in the local churchyard.[10]
The scientific accuracy with which she documented plant life in all
parts of the world, before photography became a practical option, gives
her work a permanent value.[11]
Plant species named in her honour include
Areca northiana,
Crinum northianum,
Kniphofia northiae,
Nepenthes northiana, and the genus name
Northia.
Kew Gardens claims that the North Gallery (situated in the east section
of the gardens) is "the only permanent solo exhibition by a female artist
in Britain". In 2008 Kew obtained a substantial grant from the
National Lottery, which enabled it to mount a major restoration of
both the gallery and the paintings inside.
On 26 September 2016,
BBC 4 television station broadcast Kew's forgotten queen. The
documentary told the story of North's life.[12]
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_North
- http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/wojtczak/north.html