The hybrid work of Marianne North in the context of nineteenth-century visual practice(s)

Marianne North was a major figure within the history of nineteenth-century botanical illustration. She produced a substantial body of botanical paintings as the result of extensive travels to many different parts of the world and was responsible for the founding of a major purpose-built gallery cont...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gladston, Lynne Helen
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2012
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12653/
_version_ 1848791550830575616
author Gladston, Lynne Helen
author_facet Gladston, Lynne Helen
author_sort Gladston, Lynne Helen
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Marianne North was a major figure within the history of nineteenth-century botanical illustration. She produced a substantial body of botanical paintings as the result of extensive travels to many different parts of the world and was responsible for the founding of a major purpose-built gallery containing a representative collection of her work which still stands today in the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. Despite North's percieved importance as a botanical painter, relatively little of any critical/analytical substance has been written about her life and work from an art-historical or scientific perspective. North's place within nineteenth-century visual culture is arguably a contested one, despite having been a major contributor to nineteenth-century botanical painting. North's work therefore remains problematic to both botanists and art historians because it does not conform wholly to the established nineteenth century conventions of either scientific-botanical illustration or art. This thesis will explore the uncertain positioning of North's painting through a close analysis of its relationship to nineteenth and twentieth-century visual practices. In light of this analysis, it will be argued that North's painting does not successfully combine artistic and scientific perspectives, as some have argued, but instead presents an unidentifiable mode of visual representation that shifts uncertainly between art and science, thereby deconstructing any categorical distinction between the two.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T18:30:18Z
format Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
id nottingham-12653
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T18:30:18Z
publishDate 2012
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-126532025-02-28T11:20:33Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12653/ The hybrid work of Marianne North in the context of nineteenth-century visual practice(s) Gladston, Lynne Helen Marianne North was a major figure within the history of nineteenth-century botanical illustration. She produced a substantial body of botanical paintings as the result of extensive travels to many different parts of the world and was responsible for the founding of a major purpose-built gallery containing a representative collection of her work which still stands today in the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. Despite North's percieved importance as a botanical painter, relatively little of any critical/analytical substance has been written about her life and work from an art-historical or scientific perspective. North's place within nineteenth-century visual culture is arguably a contested one, despite having been a major contributor to nineteenth-century botanical painting. North's work therefore remains problematic to both botanists and art historians because it does not conform wholly to the established nineteenth century conventions of either scientific-botanical illustration or art. This thesis will explore the uncertain positioning of North's painting through a close analysis of its relationship to nineteenth and twentieth-century visual practices. In light of this analysis, it will be argued that North's painting does not successfully combine artistic and scientific perspectives, as some have argued, but instead presents an unidentifiable mode of visual representation that shifts uncertainly between art and science, thereby deconstructing any categorical distinction between the two. 2012-07-10 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12653/1/Lynne_Gladston_thesis.pdf Gladston, Lynne Helen (2012) The hybrid work of Marianne North in the context of nineteenth-century visual practice(s). PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
spellingShingle Gladston, Lynne Helen
The hybrid work of Marianne North in the context of nineteenth-century visual practice(s)
title The hybrid work of Marianne North in the context of nineteenth-century visual practice(s)
title_full The hybrid work of Marianne North in the context of nineteenth-century visual practice(s)
title_fullStr The hybrid work of Marianne North in the context of nineteenth-century visual practice(s)
title_full_unstemmed The hybrid work of Marianne North in the context of nineteenth-century visual practice(s)
title_short The hybrid work of Marianne North in the context of nineteenth-century visual practice(s)
title_sort hybrid work of marianne north in the context of nineteenth-century visual practice(s)
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12653/