HARRIET ANN THISELTON‐DYER (1854–1945) A KEW BOTANICAL ARTIST

What is it about?

Botanical illustration is frequently underrated as an art form, but in fact deserves greater appreciation; at its best it combines the detailed and botanically highly accurate representation of a plant with artistic flair, resulting in an aesthetically pleasing, and scientifically useful painting. Curtis's Botanical Magazine, has been the pre-eminent international publication showcasing this type of work, and from 1787 to the present day, is regularly consulted by artists and botanists. A team of artists work with both herbarium and live specimens, supplied by botanists, and the logistical challenge of obtaining such specimens and painting them before they fade cannot be overestimated. In this article Alison Rix explores the life and work of one such botanical artist, Harriet Thiselton-Dyer (1854 - 1945), who because of her family connections spent the greater part of her life at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Harriet's father and grandfather, Joseph and William Hooker, were both proficient artists and each in turn became Director of Kew and Editor of Curtis's Botanical Magazine. As a girl, Harriet was taught to draw by Walter Hood Fitch, an industrious and highly-skilled artist and lithographer of well over two thousand plates for the magazine. Unsurprisingly, given her upbringing, she was able to capture on paper the beauty and interest of the plants around her at Kew, as well as those seen on her travels abroad with her father. Harriet's drawing skills were put to the test at short notice, when Fitch suddenly resigned in 1878, and her first painting was published that same year. Over the next couple of years Harriet produced a further eighty plates, lithographed by Fitch's nephew, John Nugent Fitch, and these encompassed a wide variety of plants, ranging from minute alpines to exotic climbers and shrubs; a selection of the original paintings for these are illustrated here, along with some of her unpublished paintings.

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Why is it important?

It is important to draw attention to the work of botanical artists, whose detailed and beautiful illustrations deserve greater appreciation.

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