Marianne North Gallery & The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art

Marianne North Gallery

After a successful exhibition of her paintings in a London gallery in 1879, Marianne conceived the idea of presenting them to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She also generously offered to provide a suitable building in which to display them.

Her architect friend James Fergusson designed a T-shaped building with a verandah around the outside, which mirrored her feelings for India. Its design is also reminiscent of a Greek temple, satisfying Fergusson's own ideas on an intense level of natural lighting from large clerestory windows high above the paintings.

Volunteer for a community outreach project

On one corner is the single storey studio for the artist's use and on another, a two-storey 'flat', now disused, intended by Marianne North as accommodation for a resident gardener. There are two double-height gallery spaces in which the paintings are displayed.

Miss North took charge of the hanging herself, arranging them in geographical order over a dado of 246 vertical strips of different timbers.

Astonishingly, Miss North then embarked on yet further journeys. Just two months after the opening of her Gallery, she travelled to South Africa, where many more paintings were undertaken. In 1883, she was in the Seychelles and in 1884, despite ill-health, she was painting plants in Chile.

These additional works were added to the Gallery and today the walls are virtually solid with paintings - there are 832 of her oil paintings all told, showing over 900 species of plants - a unique memorial to an equally unique woman.

Marianne North retired to Alderley, Gloucestershire, where she died on 30 August 1890. The centenary of her death was commemorated in the book Marianne North at Kew Gardens.

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art is the first gallery in the world to open year round dedicated solely to botanical art.

The gallery showcases art from Kew’s unique historic collections as well as Dr Sherwood’s contemporary collection of botanical art. The two collections, which complement each other, allow Kew to show to the public many of its largely unseen treasures and there will always be a changing selection of contemporary works on exhibition from the Shirley Sherwood Collection.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew holds one of the world’s greatest collections of botanical art, totalling over 200,000 items. The Shirley Sherwood Gallery enables visitors to Kew to see many precious and unique works of art, by masters of botanical art such as Georg D. Ehret, the Bauer brothers and Pierre-Joseph Redouté, together with nineteenth century artists such as Walter Hood Fitch, who was one of the most prolific botanical artists ever.

The controlled environment in the new gallery also enables Kew to collaborate with other institutions that hold rich collections of botanical art such as the Chelsea Physic Garden, Natural History Museum and many international libraries.

Continue the tour

Back up to: Pagoda Vista Zone

Carry on to: King William's Temple & Mediterranean Garden

See also

Kew's History & Heritage: Marianne North Gallery