Kew's Art Collections By Christopher Mills (curtis's Botanical Magazine 2009, Vol. 26:181-191)

KEW’S ART COLLECTIONS Christopher Mills The Art and Illustration Collection at Kew is one of the three main collections managed and developed by the Library, Art & Archives Team. The principal art collection is made up of over 200 000 original works, mostly watercolours on paper and vellum, line drawings, pencil sketches and prints. There are also some oil paintings, but with the exception of one large collection, these are mainly portraits of various notable botanists and Kew characters. The core of the collection is of plant portraits, drawings of plants and the parts of plants. The one exception is the Marianne North Collection, which is mostly oils but unusually Miss North applied her oil paints to paper rather than canvas. I will return to this particular collection later as it is in many respects quite distinct from the main botanical art works that Kew holds, not least as most of it is permanently on display in its own gallery. In addition to the original works of art on paper, the collection is supported by thousands of printed items, many lovingly and beautifully hand coloured and dating from the early 1400s to the present day. For example we recently took delivery of our copy of the limited edition Highgrove Florilegium. Similarly, hidden within the manuscript collections of our Archives are many notebooks and letters, which contain delightful, curious or outstanding sketches and illustrations. History of the library. The art and book collections at Kew, although assembled for other reasons, now serve to give a good representation of the history of botanical art over the last 500 years. Whilst some items have been at Kew since the 1790s when Sir Joseph Banks appointed Franz Bauer as flower painter at Kew, (in which post he continued until his death), there was no formal library at Kew until 1852. Before that time Banks and others made their own libraries and the drawings they contained, available for use. The Library proper began in 1852 when the Rev. William Bromfield, a wealthy clergyman from the Isle of Wight, bequeathed his herbarium and library of about 600 volumes. In 1854 George Bentham presented his library and in 1866 Sir William Hooker’s library and correspondence were Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 2009 vol. 26 (1&2): pp. 181–191 © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2009.

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purchased for £1000. This combination of purchase and donation is a significant feature of the overall development of the Library’s collections which continues to the present day (Rix, 2008). Hooker’s library was a particularly fine one with many rare and beautifully illustrated items such as Ruiz’s Florae Peruvianae et Chilensis,

Fig. 1. Polyanthus, cowslips and primroses, by Maria Sybilla Merian, c. 1670.

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published in Madrid in 1794 and Besler’s Hortus Eystettensis printed in Nuremberg, 1613. Other highly illustrated books with hand colouring include such rarities as John Sibthorp’s Flora Graeca (10 volumes, 1806–1840) illustrated by Ferdinand Bauer and Nicolas Jacquin’s Selectarum stirpium Americanarum historia (3 volumes, 1780–1781), one of no more than 25 sets produced. Although expansion of the collection today, both for contemporary and historical items, is mostly by purchase, donation remains an important source of acquisition. Present day artists recognise the status and significance of the collection and the possible benefits of having their work seen alongside others in a centre of excellence. The families of individuals associated with Kew have also kindly fostered past relationships into the future by presenting their forebears’ pictures to Kew. Botanical art. We aim to enhance our collection of botanical paintings by purchase and commission, but like most institutions, we struggle to compete with the private collectors, both for the work of the most established contemporary artists and for historical items at auction. Consequently in recent years we have put effort into spotting the best artists early in their careers and in arranging private sales for older items so we can raise funds on our terms and time scale. Recently a scheme for sponsorship of artworks that deposits them in the collection has proved popular with supporters and has greatly benefited the collection. Visitors are often surprised at the size of the collection itself, and are frequently not expecting the variety that they find, both in range of style but also the size of individual paintings. Pictures in our collection range from a sketch a few millimetres wide drawn on a scrap of paper through to items of several feet in width and length, where the only practical way to store them is rolled around a large tube. A common misconception about, or criticism of, botanical art and therefore Kew’s collection is the claim that botanical art is all rather ‘samey’ and has not changed in centuries. Just the few pictures that accompany this article, I think, rather disprove this. While within our collection there are indeed many examples of a single specimen floating on a sea of white paper, it is not the whole story. Represented within the collection is some of the finest botanical artwork that has ever been produced, technically perfect but also stunning to look at. Work from the 18th and first half of the 19th © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2009.

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century, the golden age of botanical art, is a particularly strong part of the collection. The masters of this period include Franz and Ferdinand Bauer, Pierre Joseph Redout´e, Georg Dionysius Ehret and Walter Hood Fitch (Ward & Flanagan, 2003). Botanical art has, and continues to, develop constantly in style and the range of materials used in its making. Whilst watercolour and paper or vellum are the traditional materials, artists for many years now have experimented with other media. Kew’s collection has items that use acrylic, air brushing and various odd and assorted alternatives to paper. One of Miss North’s paintings is on a piece of tarpaulin! Currently, experimentation with more complex composition is very much part of what Dr Shirley Sherwood has termed the ‘Renaissance in Botanical Art’.

Fig. 2. Gavilea patagonica (Skottsb.) M.N. Correa (Orchidaceae). A sketch by Charles Darwin at Port Desire, Argentina (1833–1834).

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It is also important when considering these pictures that we remember both the purpose and context in which some were made. Frequently painted while the artist was on a voyage, these early expeditions were literally going into the unknown. A visual representation was often the only way to disseminate information about what was found. The artist relied on a network of messengers, ports and ships to get their drawings home so they could be copied and published, an 18th century world wide web, just dramatically slower. So in some instances it is the context or story associated with a picture that brings it to life. The sketch above (Fig. 2) is suddenly invested with many more attributes when we learn it was made by Charles Darwin during his travels. Though dominant in number, as in many other areas of art, the importance and talent of women artists is often overlooked. A favourite image in the Kew collection, which is technically and aesthetically outstanding is Polyanthus, Cowslips and Primroses by Maria Sibylla Merian (Fig. 1.) In the 19th and 20th centuries the pioneering spirit of Merian was continued by Marianne North (Fig. 5) and Margaret Mee (Fig. 3), both of whose works are well particularly well-represented in the Kew collection (Mills, 2008). New library facilities. With less hazard attached to their travel, students of art, history of art and other disciplines now visit Kew to see the original paintings and drawings we hold to learn about style, techniques and materials, as well as observational skills. The new large Reading Room, that is a part of the extension to the Herbarium and Library opening later this year, will enhance access to the pictures. The opening of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art last year has helped reveal this once hidden part of Kew’s collections to thousands of visitors and the new Reading Room will help those wishing to further their interest. Although it is the contribution of individual artists and collectors that have made the art collection so important, the significance of the publication in which this article is appearing cannot be stressed enough. The long association of this journal with Kew and the continuing deposition of all the original artwork for the magazine in the Library has played an extremely important role in developing Kew’s art collection to its premier position. © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2009.

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Fig. 3. Acacallis cyanea Lindl. (Orchidaceae). watercolour by Margaret Mee, Alto Rio Negro, n.d., possibly 1950s.

Scientific plant illustration. What surprises many visitors is the basis on which our collection is founded. The premise for having an art collection within what is principally a scientific institution 186

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is quite distinct from that underlying the collection development policies of a museum or gallery where collecting a particular type of object, genre of art or serving the founders interest dominates. We do not acquire our paintings because they are museum objects, for their artistic beauty or for aesthetic reasons, their individual significance or their reputation. For Kew the principal criteria is whether or not the picture is a useful source of scientific information. It must be technically precise and an accurate portrayal of the species. That is not to say that style, composition and technique will not have some influence, but they are secondary. A painting that is stunning, but which misrepresents the true form of the plant it depicts, would not have a place in our collection. That said, as can be seen, it is possible to produce works of great beauty that also meet our standards of information and accuracy. Within the collection many of our pictures have assumed a particular significance. Over time in all herbaria, it has not been unknown for Type specimens to disappear. This may be due to pests, ‘loss’ or decay. Where a drawing of the lost type specimen exists this becomes the effective Type specimen or iconotype. As you can imagine, in the past in particular, transporting large numbers of specimens back from remote places was very difficult. In the days of the sailing ship the illustration was often more easy to preserve than the specimen. The former often found a place within the Captain’s cabin while the specimens were consigned to the hold or even the deck, where they were more likely to incur damage and many specimens never reached their destination. Some visitors assume photography has removed the need for painting and are surprised that we maintain and develop an art collection. I do not have space to discuss the issues of drawing versus photograph here, let it suffice to say we see the value of both and just as the death of the book has been long foretold, but last year more books than ever were published, so we remain confident we will be collecting botanical art where this best meets our information need for many years to come. Every new form of media tends to complement another and though it may do some things better it usually does not replace the other entirely. Conservation. Although the size and breadth of the collection gives us a fantastic information resource and opportunities for © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2009.

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exhibition, it brings with it a great responsibility, namely the preservation of these important international botanical and heritage materials for future generations. Sadly, many items in the collection are in need of conservation to address inherent problems within the object itself or to redress the ‘care’ they were given in the past. The drawings have always been part of a working collection and in previous centuries their content was important to the exclusion of the significance of the item as an object in its own right. This was the case in many similar institutions and mishandling and inappropriate storage has left a legacy of the need for conservation. In the late 19th and early 20th century watercolours and drawings were pasted into volumes or on to backing sheets on what we now know to be highly acidic papers. We now need to remove many thousands of paintings from these. Similarly, the pictures were often stored with the specimens so they were not kept flat and frequently larger works were folded to fit the cupboard they were to be kept in! In carrying out conservation to the collection we clean and deacidify, we repair or reinforce papers but we do not restore. We then store the pictures in Solander boxes for security and environmental stability, as well as ease of access. One consequence of all the rehousing that we do is that it normally takes 2–3 times as much space to hold a set of paintings properly as it did when they were in bound volumes. Alongside preserving and managing the collection, we also seek to make it more accessible, so that a visit to the Library is not the only way the pictures can be seen. We achieve this in three main ways; through books and other publications; digitisation and mounting the images on the web; and through exhibitions in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art. One very real practical benefit to us in making the collection more accessible is that it exposes our collection to many people who are much more expert in particular areas than we can be. Since putting images on the web and opening the new art gallery in April last year we have had visitors come forth who have been able to add to our knowledge of particular paintings. Marianne North collection and gallery. I would like to conclude with a few observations on the exceptional collection I 188

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Fig. 4. Interior of the Marianne North Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2007.

referred to at the beginning, the paintings and gallery that Marianne North gifted to Kew. Miss North created her collection during 13 years of world travel and then paid for the building of a gallery to house it. It was due to her childhood visits to Kew that she was inspired to travel the world to see plants in the wild and so it was fitting that this gallery, which is unique in featuring the work of a single female artist should have been built at Kew. Some would say her work often lacks the fineness of detail to be truly called botanical art, whilst others argue that her style invokes a real feel of the plant in its environment (Fig. 5). Regardless of this, few can fail to be moved by the effect the gallery as a whole generates (Fig.4). Until later this year the Marianne North Gallery is closed while the building is completely renovated. This is the largest conservation activity in respect of our paintings we have ever undertaken and during this time we are conserving all 633 oil-on-paper pictures that hang in the gallery, as well as 16 oil-on-canvas paintings that have been in storage for over half a century. When the project is completed we will have removed all of the paintings from their acidic backing boards, cleaned and remounted them. The pictures will be reinstated so the gallery looks, in appearance, as it always has. All the other artistic features in the gallery will also have been conserved. © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2009.

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Fig. 5. Foliage and flowers of Cornus nuttallii Audubon, the Californian Dogwood, and Rufous Humming Birds, Selasphorus rufus, by Marianne North (MN190) California, 1881.

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In the next 250 years of Kew’s life we look forward to continuing to develop the botanical art collection, caring for the items we have and continuing to find new ways of sharing this wonderful resource with all our visitors. REFERENCES

Mills, C. (2008). No Shrinking Violets. (A discussion on the work of Merian, North and Mee). Art Quarterly Spring 2008: 54–57. Rix, M. (2008). The Kew Collection. In: Sherwood, S. & Rix, M. (eds). Treasures of Botanical Art. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Ward, M. & Flanagan, J. (2003). Portraying plants: illustrations collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Art Libraries Journal 28: 2.

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