The artist's remarkable life and botanical paintings.
Marianne North was an intrepid Victorian botanical artist who travelled around the world in search of rare exotic plants. Unlike classical botanical artists, she believed in painting plants in their natural habitat and documented over 900 plant species in her distinctive style of oil painting. She donated her life’s work to Kew Gardens in 1882 and paid for a new gallery to be built to house them. That gallery has now been re-opened as part of Kew’s 250th anniversary year celebrations. The 3.7 million pound project is ongoing as not all of the original 833 paintings have yet been restored. Jane went to visit the gallery with Laura Ponsonby, an authority on Marianne North, to find out more about her remarkable life and the work involved in restoring her collection.
