Marianne North (England, 1830-1890)
Marianne North was an English botanical artist with a very particular aesthetic. Her strong colors and complete occupation of the painting are notable, as they displeased art critics and
scientists of the time. The daughter of a wealthy English family, she sold her share of the inheritance, traveled the world and spent a year in Brazil. She never married and had a long relationship with the writer Amelia Edwards, who was in love with North, but unrequited. Much of her work has been preserved thanks to Marianne North herself, her fortune and her good contacts. This made it possible for her to build a gallery for her more than 800 works at Kew Gardens in London, considered the temple of botanical gardens, with a sensational display also created by North. According to myself, she is the greatest painter of carnivorous plants in history. I don't know if that's an exaggeration, but the fact is that Marianne North had one of these plants named after her, the beautiful Nepenthes northiana, which populates this imaginary portrait of hers.
Portrait of Marianne North, created with artificial intelligence, at the age of 60, from archive images of the young artist-scientist. 50x76cm, 2024.
References:
Casa D'Italia - Juiz de Fora. "Women travelers in the Brazilian Empire: the trajectory of Maria Graham and Marianne North," May 24, 2022. https://casaditaliajf.com.br/2022/05/24/revista-casaditalia-mulheres-viajantes-no-imperio-do-brasil-a-trajetoria-de-maria-graham-e-marianne-north/.
Dickenson, John. "Marianne North: a nineteenth-century naturalist in Brazil?" Cadernos Pagu, no. 15 (2000): 145-64. https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/cadpagu/article/view/8635571.
"Queerplaces - Marianne North." Accessed February 24, 2024. http://www.elisarolle.com/queerplaces/klmno/Marianne%20North.html.