Marianne North

You may remember that in a post last year I mentioned artist Marianne North because I’d seen a programme about her. Well, due to that I became interested in her and I’ve done some research on her.

Marianne North was born in October 1830 and was the eldest daughter of Frederick North, a Liberal MP for Hastings, and Janet North, daughter of Sir John Marjoribanks MP.

Marianne North

She originally trained as a vocalist but her voice failed and she turned to painting. After her mother died in 1855 Marianne travelled with her father to Syria and along the Nile in Egypt.

After her father’s death in 1869, Marianne, now aged nearly 40, continued travelling with the intention of painting the flowers, landscapes, animals and birds she found. She had a true passion for recording the things she saw, some of which was new to science and as she painted with scientific accuracy, the viewer could see exactly what the plant looked like. She said:

‘I had long dreamed of going to some tropical country to paint its peculiar vegetation on the spot in natural abundant luxuriance.’

Marianne North

Marianne North

That’s just what she did. Over the years Marianne travelled to Sicily, Canada, the United States, Jamaica, Brazil, Tenerife, Japan, Borneo, Java, Ceylon and India. After encouragement from Charles Darwin, she also visited Australia and New Zealand.

Marianne North

Marianne North

Marianne travelled through rough landscapes and through jungle, staying in huts, living there until she had recorded everything she wanted to. She lived in India for 18 months and visited many areas all over the world which were unknown to a lot of Europeans. She also travelled unaccompanied, something very unusual for a Victorian woman.

Marianne North

During 18 years of travel, Marianne created 832 paintings, brightly coloured and valuable to science and art. She discovered new species and due to this, Marianne had one genus named after her: Northia, and four species: Areca northiana, Crinum northianum, Kniphofia northiana and Nepenthes northiana.

Marianne North

Marianne North

Marianne had a gallery built in Kew Gardens. It was designed by James Ferguson but she paid for it herself and personally arranged all the pictures inside, row upon row, all tightly packed together. The gallery opened in 1882.

Marianne North

Due to failing health, Marianne retired to Gloucestershire and she died in 1890.

Marianne North was very adventurous for the time that she lived in, but she was well connected and had support from the people she knew. Many Victorian women didn’t have the means or the freedom to do something similar even if they wanted to. However, what Marianne did was a great achievement. Her work is beautiful, colourful and detailed and she had a great determination and dedication to her aim. It allowed people who might never travel to the countries she visited to see the plants and landscapes of exotic lands. She was obviously a strong woman and deserves to be remembered more than she is, alongside the male explorers of the same era.