Kew Gardens
Marianne North Gallery
Discover the colourful vision of the pioneering botanical artist Marianne North.
Explore the Marianne North GalleryShirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art
The world’s first public gallery dedicated to classic and contemporary botanical art.
This unique collection of botanical art celebrates the beauty of nature in exquisite scientific detail – from an age before photography until the present day.
The gallery captures the endless variety of artistic responses to plants and fungi, displaying items from Kew’s archive of 200,000 botanical images alongside the contemporary collection of Dr Shirley Sherwood.
Since its opening in 2008 the gallery has hosted 48 exhibitions with works by many important artists such as Margaret Mee, Rory McEwen and Rebecca Louise Law, as well as paintings from Japan, Brazil, Spain, South Africa, the US and Australia.
Visiting the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art
Location
The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art is located near the Temperate House.
Price
Included with entry to the Gardens.
Opening times
18 March to 12 April: The Shirley Sherwood Gallery will be closed.
From 13 April: Open 10am – 6.30pm (last entry 6pm).
A renaissance in botanical art
The art of botanical illustration dates back to the 15th century, when herbals (books describing the culinary and medicinal uses of plants) were printed containing illustrations of flowers. In the 16th century, as printing techniques advanced and new plants came to Europe, wealthy individuals and botanic gardens began to commission artists to record them.
Botanical art has since become vital for scientific records, because it can reveal more detail than a photograph.
For more than 25 years Dr Shirley Sherwood has been collecting contemporary botanical illustrations to champion their scientific and aesthetic merit.
Since 1990, her collection has grown into a comprehensive catalogue of over 200 artists living in 30 different countries.
Now displayed alongside classic botanical art, Sherwood’s incredible collection charts the emergence of a new wave of botanical painting – a renaissance in scientific art.
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