Margaret Meen (fl.1775-1824)
Margaret Meen made many hundreds of very effective paintings of
exotic plants at Kew and elsewhere. She is regarded by William Blunt
and Wilfred Stearn in their definitive book "The art of
botanical illustration" (1994) as having immense industry
and patience although they consider her a very highly gifted amateur
rather than in the first rank with, for example, Franz and Ferdinand
Bauer.
The Library & Archives at Kew has a number of illustrations
by her which were made for Lord Bute at the time he was advising
Princess Augusta over the development of the original royal garden
at Kew. These were sold to the Earl of Tankerville in 1794 and purchased
for Kew by the Bentham Trust in 1932. In 2001 the Library acquired
an album of an additional 100 original drawings on paper from a
descendant living in the USA.
Margaret Meen's only published work is "Exotic plants
from the Royal Gardens at Kew" (1790) which was intended
to be a bi-annual part work but which ceased after two issues ,
a copy of which is also held by Kew’s Library.
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