Join to learn more about Marianne North, the groundbreaking female botanical painter who travelled extensively across the globe in the late 1800s and even made her way to Olana. During this presentation, Dr. Lynne Howarth-Gladston will focus on North’s self-styled gallery at Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew (United Kingdom) which was designed to house over 800 of her botanical paintings. The Marianne North Gallery depicts more than 900 species of plants, displaying panoramic educational zones North captured during her trailblazing international travels. Dr. Howarth Gladston will discuss how North, assisted by the amateur architect James Fergusson, designed and built this self-styled gallery, making curatorial decisions and devising fashionable interior design troupes to blend aesthetics and scientific observation in one unique space.
Dr. Lynne Howarth Gladston is a writer, curator, designer, artist and independent academic, with numerous publications on the subjects of Chinese Contemporary art, and curatorial practice. Her most recent book, Marianne North: A Victorian Painter for the 21st Century, was published by Lund Humphries and Kew Publishers in 2024. Howarth Gladston is trained as a botanical Illustrator at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and is a practicing artist who has exhibited in the UK, China, and Australia. Her Doctorate was in Critical Theory, at the School of Philosophy, Nottingham University.
