Marianne North: A Bright Performance

"Japanese Lily" by Marianne North

"Marianne North had set out to paint the fauna of the world in their own environments, and in 1885 the purpose of her travels was as complete as it need be. She felt more and more 'the need of perfect rest.' She could not even stand the fatigue of going down to Kew, and began to look about for 'some quiet cottage in a garden.' The following year she found the house she was seeking, at Alderley in Gloucestershire, and devoted herself to the making of a garden.

She experienced anew the pleasure of farming and the society of country families, which must have reminded her of her childhood at Rougham. Something of her old enthusiasm and humour returned. 'When are you coming to see the most perfect garden in England?' she wrote a friend.

Her sisters three daughters came to spend the Jubileee summer of 1887 with her. Her favourite nephew, Fred, spent the vacations there with his law books. 'Strength is gone and rest is coming,' she wrote to Sir Joseph Hooker, 'and come to some extent, enough to make life very enjoyable.' The enjoyment was short enough. In the winter of 1887-8 she fell ill. Her step-sister's daughter was with her through the worst of it, and another wrote that Marianne was 'about as ill as it is possible to be.' With remarkable tenacity she lived another two years, but died on the 30th of August 1890. She was fifty-nine years old.

Of her two public memorials, the gallery was standing at Kew. Her autobiography 'Recollections of a Happy Life' was still lying in manuscript, waiting for an editor to reduce it to proportions acceptable to a publisher. It fell to her sister to take on that task. "Your aunt had a wonderful brain,' wrote Catherine to her daughter more than a decade later. 'It is good to be reminded of this now that her personality is already indistinct.' But her personality shows through in her recollections as clearly as in the lines of her brush and the crisp colour of her paints. It was, as an objective assessor had said of her book, 'a bright sort of performance.'"

(Excerpt from the biographical note at the end of "A Vision of Eden: the Life and Work of Marianne North" written by Brenda E. Moon.)

Marianne North: Her Gallery at Kew

After thirteen years of traveling the world, Marianne North had an idea – to exhibit her paintings in the Kew Gardens where her passion had begun, a project which she describes thusly in her autobiography:

"Among the criticisms of my paintings was one which suggested that the collection of botanical subjects should find their ultimate home at Kew. I kept this idea some time in my head before acting on it, but having missed a train one day and having some hours to spare, I wrote off to Sir Joseph Hooker and asked him if he would like me to give them to Kew Gardens, and to build a gallery to put them in, with a guardian's house. I wished to combine this gallery with a resthouse and a place where refreshments could be had - tea, coffee, etc.

Sir Joseph at once accepted the first part of my offer, but said it would be impossible to supply refreshments to so many (77,000 people all at once possibly on a Bank Holiday), mentioning, too, the difficulty of keeping the British Public in order. I asked Mr. Fergusson, the author of the 'History of Architecture,' to make the design and manage the building for me, which he did to the end with the greatest kindness and carefulness.

I chose the site myself, far off from the usual entrance gates, as I thought a resting place and shelter from rain and sun were more needed there, by those who cared sufficiently for plants to have made their way. I obtained leave to build a small studio for myself or any other artist to paint flowers in at any time, as there was no quiet room in the gardens in which a specimen could be copied.

After a trip to record the fauna of Australia, Borneo, New Zealand and the United States, Marianne returned to England. Her first thought was for the progress on her gallery. She wrote: "I did notlong delay in going there. I found the building finished (as far as bare walls went) most satisfactorily, its lighting perfect. Mr. Fergusson kindly arranged about the decorating and painting of the walls. I got woods from all parts of the world from which to make a dado [the lower part of a wall]. The catalogue I wrote on cards, and stuck them under the paintings; and after I had put down all I knew, Mr. Hemsley corrected and added more information, which he did so thoroughly and carefully that I asked him to finish the whole, and to put his name to the publication.

After that I spent a year in fitting and framing, patching and sorting my pictures, and finally got it finished and open to the public on the 7th of June 1882."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "A Vision of Eden: The Life and Work of Marianne North" by Marianne North.)

Marianne North: To India

"The Great Lily of Nainee Tal, North India"
by Marianne North

"While back in London, the Kensington Museum sent two gentlemen to look at my different paintings, asking me to lend them for exhibition in one of their galleries. I was quite flattered when I heard afterwards that in the cab on the way to my flat, the one had said to the other, 'We must get out of this civilly somehow. I know what all these amateur things always are!' but in the cab going back, he said, 'We must have those things at any price." I employed the last few weeks of my stay in England in making a catalogue as well as I could of the 500 studies I lent them, putting in as much general information about the plants as I had time to collect.

I left Southampton once more by ship on the 10th of September 1877 for India. On the 24th of December 1877 I reached Tanjore, India, where I stayed at Dr. Burnell's, a friend and expert in botany. Living with him was like living with a live dictionary, and was a delightful change. He had all sorts of sacred Hindu plants ready for me to paint (he having undertaken to write their history at the same time, and to publish it some day with my illustrations). He and his friend showed me the splendid temple of Tanjore, lingering over all its rare bits of carving and inscriptions till I felt at home there, too. I know no building in its way nobler than that, and did one large painting of the outside, driving every afternoon to the point of view I had chosen, where the Princes of Tanjore had ordered a small tent to be put up for me and a guard of honour to attend me!

I also enjoyed travelling to Beypur close to the sea. I could walk on the rocks and sands, watching the shrimps, crabs, and other strange creatures in their own home circles. I made a long sketch of the river and distant mountains. It was very pleasant sitting on the clean sand, but it was hot. The jack-crows were the chief objection to my quarters at Beypur. They flew in at the window and stole every small thing they saw. I caught one just hopping off with a tube of my precious cobalt one day, and only came into the room in time to make him drop it. " 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "A Vision of Eden: The Life and Work of Marianne North" by Marianne North.)

Marianne North: Japan

"The Hottomi Temple, Kioto, Japan" by Marianne North

On the 17th of July I went down to the most agreeable country house I know - that of Mr. Higford Burr at Aldermaston. Some people I had never met before asked me where I was going next, and I said vaguely, 'Japan.' They said, 'You had better start with us, for we are going there also, on the 5th of August,' and, to their surprise, I said I would.

On the 7th of November we found ourselves within sight of Fujiyama. I watched the sun rise out of the sea and redden its top, as I have seen so well represented on so many hand screens and tea trays. The next morning I saw my friends off. The big ship departed and I returned to the hotel at Yokohama. As Sir Harry and Lady Parkes were said to be soon going on an expedition round the coast, I started to pay my respects to them at eight in the morning. 

Lady Parkes was not sorry to make me an excuse for a trip, and we drove out to the Governor's luncheon party at the tea house, which had one side of the room quite open towards a pretty garden and a clear view. On the table were vases of chrysanthemums, tied on all the way up sticks a yard high. The ornaments were of rare old Satsuma porcelain.

The next day Sir Harry and Lady Parkes left, leaving me with a special order from the Mikado to sketch for three months as much as I liked in Kioto, provided I did not scribble on the public monuments or convert the people; for it was still a closed place to Europeans. I was perfectly safe all alone and comfortable too, in the old temple building some centuries old, which had been turned into an hotel for Europeans. 

My room was made of paper with sliding panels all around. From my windows I saw a most exquisite view, for the house was perched up high on the side of the hill, with the most lovely groves and temples all over it, and below the great city of over 200,000 inhabitants. The top of one of the trained pinetrees came up like a terrace of flat turf to the level of the balcony. It looked so solid that I could almost have walked over it.  

There was always something new and interesting to meet me every day. I had hope to stay over the winter, and to go to the hills in the summer, but with the cold I got stiffer and stiffer, and at last could scarcely crawl, so on the 19th of December I ordered a boat to Osaka, and set myself to pack as well as I could. I was in the  the doctor's hands for ten days with rheumatic fever. I could not even feed myself during part of the time." 

[As she recovered, Marianne traveled nearer to the equator where the weather was warmer - to Hong Kong, then on to Singapore where she continued to paint.]

To be continued

(Excerpts from "A Vision of Eden: The Life and Work of Marianne North" by Marianne North.)

Marianne North: Teneriffe

"A View of the Botanic Garden, Teneriffe"
by Marianne North

"The winter after my return from Brazil I devoted to learning to etch on copper, Mr. Edwin Edwardes, who had illustrated the old inns of England, kindly giving me a few lessons. The winter was an unusually cold one. After the experiences of the last two in Jamaica and Brazil I found it quite unbearable, so at last I determined to follow the sun to Teneriffe. A friend and I started on New Year's day, 1875, in hard frost and snow, steaming from Liverpool in a wretched little steamer in unpleasant squally weather.

On the 11th we landed for a few hours in sunny Madeira, on the 13th in Santa Cruz, then drove on the same day to Villa de Orotava. We found there was a hotel (and not a very bad one either) and we got possession of its huge ballroom, which was full of crockery and looking-glasses, and some hundred chairs all piled up on the top of one another. This room had glass doors, but served to sleep in well enough, and I determined to stay and make the best of it, for the climate and views were quite perfect. I stayed more than a month. I had gotten a letter to the Swiss manager of the Botanic Gardens, who also kept a grocer's shop. He was very kind in taking me to see the most lovely gardens. When the good people found my hobby for painting strange plants, they sent me all kinds of beautiful specimens.

I remained quietly working in or about Orotava till the 17th of February, when I moved down to Mr. S.'s comfortable home at Puerto di Orotava. I had a room on the roof with a separate staircase down to the lovely garden, learned to know every plant in that exquisite collection. I scarcely ever went out without finding some new wonder to paint, lived a life of the most perfect peace and happiness, and got strength every day with my kind friends. 

Santa Cruz, to which I at first took a dislike, I found full of beauty. I stayed there till the 'Ehiopia' picked me up and arrived in London on the 8th of May."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "A Vision of Eden: The Life and Work of Marianne North" by Marianne North.)

Marianne North: To Brazil, 1872-73

"View from the Sierra of Petropolis, Brazil, with the
Bay of Rio, its Islands and the Sugarloaf Mountain in the
Distance" by Marianne North

After a two months stay in England, Marianne North began to think of carrying out her plan of going to Brazil, to continue the collection of studies of tropical plants which she had begun in Jamaica. She wrote:

"In August 1872 we cast anchor into the beautiful Bay of Rio, which certainly is the most lovely seascape in the world. I know nothing more trying to a shy person than landing for the first time among a strange people and language, I always dread it, but I soon felt myself at home in Rio, and in a few days had a large airy room and dressing room at the top of the hotel, with views from the windows which in every changing mood of the weather were a real pleasure to study. 

I went by mule car every day to the famous Botanical Gardens, about four miles off, a never-ending delight to me; and, as the good Austrian director allowed me to keep my easel and other things at his house, I felt quite at home there, and for some time worked every day and all day under its shady avenues, only returning at sunset to dine and rest. 

Of course my first work was to attempt to make a sketch of the great avenue of royal palms which has been so often described. It is half a mile long at least, and the trees are 100 feet high, though only thirty years old. After a fortnight's daily work there the weather became cloudy, and I brought home flowers of fish to work at, my landlord kindly letting me go with him any morning I liked to the wonderful market, where the oddest fish were to be found, and where boatloads of oranges were landed and sold all day long on the quayside.

I spent some days in walking and sketching on the hills behind the city. In this neighbourhood I saw many curious sights. One day six monkeys with long tails and gray whiskers were chattering in one tree, and allowed me to come up close underneath and watch their games through my opera glass. The most awkward of all animals, the sloth, also spent his dull life on the branches, slowly eating up the young shoots and hugging them with his hooked feet, preferring to hang and sleep head downwards.

I also had a letter from my father's old friend to the Emperor, who kindly gave me a special appointment in the morning, and spent more than an hour examining my paintings and talking them over, telling me the names and qualities of different plants which I did not know myself. He then took the whole mass (no small weight) in his arms, and carried them in to show the Empress, telling me to follow. She was also very kind with a sweet, gentle manner.

I wandered and wondered at everything, and people were extremely curious to know why I was travelling alone and painting. Did the Government pay my expenses? I certainly could not pay them myself, I was too shabbily dressed for that! I told them when I got home I hoped to paint a picture and sell it for so much money that I would pay all my expenses...and that they understood."

[After a year of travel and painting throughout the country, Marianne returned to England, landing at Southampton on the 14th of September.]

To be continued

(Excerpts from "A Vision of Eden: The Life and Work of Marianne North" by Marianne North.)

Marianne North: Painting in Jamaica

Marianne North at the Easel

"After about a month of perfect quiet and incessant painting at the garden house, people began to find me out. The K's rode down and made me promise to come to their cottage for a night. Their home was a thousand feet higher than mind, with a most lovely view and bamboo all round it, the first large specimens I ever saw. They made me feel in another world among their rattling, creaking, croaking, cork-drawing noises. Some of the cans must have been fifty feet high, thicker than my arm and full of varied colour. 

I began a sketch of the bamboo the next morning, then went on a mile along the ridge to stay with Captain and Mrs. H and the old deaf General Commander-in-Chief, in a bare tumble-down old house, supported by two weird old cotton trees and a sandbox tree, built on the very edge of the precipitous wall of the valley. 

Captain Lanyon came up with the Governor's orders that I was not to go down the hill without coming to stay at Craigton, but I wanted more clothes and paints, so Captain H. promised me a horse at six the next morning to take me and bring me back, but when I got up I found the house like a tomb, not a creature stirring.

I got out of my window, only a yard above the ground, and went down to the stable: all asleep too, and the sun rising so gloriously! I could not waste time, so took my painting things and walked off to finish my sketch at the K's. They sent me out some tea, and I afterwards walked on down the hill among the ebony trees and aloes, to my home. After a rummage and a bath I went up the hill again, with old Stewart carrying my portmanteau on the top of his head. I reached Craigton just after sunset. The house was a mere cottage, but so homelike in its lovely garden, blazing with red dracaenas and poinsettias looking redder in the sunset rays, that I felt at home at once. 

My first study was of a slender tree fern with leaves like lacework, then in the afternoon I painted in the garden, with the benefit of the tea and gossip which went on near me, sitting under a huge mango."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "A Vision of Eden: the Life and Work of Marianne North.")