Anon. Deptford Pink Flower (Dianthus armeria)

British Wildflowers: Botanical Watercolours c.1835

This beautiful watercolour forms part of a botanical collection depicting a whole host of wildflowers, painted from life around 1835. Many of the paintings in the collection are inscribed with the flower identification on the verso and some have the place, with locations principally in North Yorkshire, Lancashire and Normandy in France.

This was painted at a time when flower-rich grasslands and meadows were a common sight in Britain: observing wildflowers was a feature of everyday rural life, and popular knowledge and appreciation of the simple things growing around us was much greater. In the 18th and 19th centuries botanical illustration became an art in its own right, playing an important role in world exploration. Botanical artists were often commissioned to catalogue plant collections, and botanical classification was becoming an increasingly sophisticated science. This professional cataloguing had a profound and enduring influence on the artistic pursuits and tastes of the wider public. Paintings of this sort are an important record of our flora in the 19th century; it is estimated that over 97% of Britain's wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930s.