Marianne North - Travel and Work

Travel and Work

She began her travels in 1871–1872, going first to Canada, the United States and Jamaica, and spent a year in Brazil, where she did much of her work at a hut in the depths of a forest. In 1875, after a few months in Tenerife, she began a journey round the world, and for two years painted the flora of California, Japan, Borneo, Java and Ceylon. She spent 1878 in India.

On her return to Britain she exhibited a number of her drawings in London. She offered to give the collection to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and to erect a gallery to house them. This offer was accepted, and the new buildings, designed by James Fergusson, were begun that year.

At Charles Darwin's suggestion she went to Australia in 1880, and for a year painted there and in New Zealand. Her paintings of Banksia attenuata, B. grandis and B. robur were highly regarded. Her gallery at Kew was opened in 1882. In 1883, after a visit by her to South Africa, an additional room was opened at the Kew gallery, and in 1884–1885 she worked at Seychelles and in Chile. She died at Alderley in Gloucestershire on 30 August 1890.

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