Louisa Hare Purple Owl-Butterfly (Caligo beltrao) Study

Flowers Foliage & Butterflies: Watercolours of Louisa Hare (1776–1853)

This exquisite watercolour forms part of an impressive collection of natural history works by Louisa Hare née Brome (1776–1853). Louisa was the daughter of a Staffordshire landowner, Thomas Selleck Brome of Cowich. In 1803 she married Captain James Hare (1772–1826) of Whittern, a large estate at Lyonshall in Herefordshire. She had twelve children, at least two of whom became notable surgeons: Edward Selleck Hare, and Henry Woodroffe Hare, who emigrated to South Africa (where his grandson, Harry Leighton Hare, became a distinguished ornithologist).

Interestingly, in 1839, the young naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace OM FRS (1823–1913) lived for a time at Kington, less than three miles from Lyonshall. (There is a drawing of Whittern house by Wallace's brother in the collection of the Natural History Museum). It was at Kington, inspired by the natural landscape and flora around him, that Wallace began to develop an interest in natural history subjects—especially geology, astronomy, and botany—and he became associated with the newly formed Kington Mechanics' Institution. Wallace went on to become one of the leading evolutionary thinkers of the 19th century.

The beautiful watercolours in our collection—depicting flowers, leaves, butterflies and other insects—are a mixture of subjects observed locally from nature and what appear to be decorative compositions combining native and more exotic species. As such, the paintings reflect the varied threads of popular naturalism in the early 19th century. Interpreted through the female domestic sphere, where natural history was learnt alongside literature and the arts, some of the paintings also incorporate quotations from Romantic poetic verse.