Publications

The Garden
May 2003

Narrow circles of interest

Many Victorian ladies, Brent Elliott reveals, were unknown accomplished artists

The Lindley Library contains a collection of 323 coloured drawings by an amateur artist named Caroline Maria Applebee, that were made between 1808 and 1852. The drawings were bought for the Society by our former Secretary William Wilks, during the first decade of the 20th century, from three different vendors - a sign that her work was highly regarded, even if within a narrow circle. We have no biographical information about Applebee, except that a person of that name died in London in 1854.

Although the work of an undocumented amateur, the drawings are accomplished, and serve as a reminder that highly skilled work in flower painting was being carried out in the early 19th century by a variety of women - for whom the depiction of flowers was regarded as a suitable activity - and who remain effectively unknown to history. As American art historian Ann Bermingham remarked in her recent book Learning to Draw, ‘The legacy of the segregation of women from the public sphere has made our work as cultural historians of art all the more difficult’.

Some of these artists became well known, through connections of patronage or family, and some, like Anne Pratt or Mrs Bury, published their work, but many more developed their artistic skills purely as a hobby.

Every so often an album of flower drawings by some 19th-century female artist is published, and claims made for undiscovered masterpieces. The next time you tackle the clutter in the attic, keep your eyes open: I suspect that far more of these collections lurk unnoticed than has yet been realised.

Brent Elliott is RHS Librarian and Archivist

The RHS Lindley Library holds more than 50,000 books, 1,500 periodicals, 25,000 botanical drawings, and the UK's largest collection of horticultural trade catalogues.

The works shown are held in the rare books room of the RHS Lindley Library and may be consulted at the London branch at 80 Vincent Square, London, and is open to the public Monday - Friday, 9.30am - 5.30pm.
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