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Marianne North (1830-1890)
Marianne North was a remarkable Victorian artist who travelled
the globe in order to satisfy her passion for recording the world’s
flora with her paintbrush. The result of these epic journeys can
be seen in the North Gallery at Kew, where tier upon tier of brightly
coloured paintings of flowers, landscapes, animals and birds are
arranged. There are 832 paintings, all completed in 13 years of
travel round the world.
Marianne was devoted to her father Frederick North who was Liberal
MP for Hastings. When he died in 1869 it had a profound effect on
her for until then all life had centred on him. In 1871 at the age
of 40 Marianne began her astonishing series of trips around the
world.
Between 1871 and 1885 she visited America, Canada, Jamaica, Brazil,
Tenerife, Japan, Singapore, Sarawak, Java, Sri Lanka, India, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa, the Seychelles and Chile. Some of the
plants she painted proved new to science and one genus and four
species were named in her honour. She took a year off from travelling
in 1881-1882 to arrange her pictures in the Gallery, which was built
at her own expense and designed by James Ferguson, the architectural
historian.
Marianne North retired to Gloucestershire, where she died on 30th
August 1890.
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