Wallflower and Tulip
Maker
Matilda Conyers
(British, 1698-1793)
ClassificationsDRAWINGS
Date1767
Mediumwatercolor and opaque watercolor over traces of graphite with brown ink (est. iron gall) inscriptions on vellum
Dimensions9 x 6 1/4 in. (22.9 x 15.9 cm.)
InscribedInscription signed and dated at lower right: M Conyers May 1767; titled at lower left: Wallflower and Tulip
Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Label TextFlower painting was considered an appropriate pastime for aristocratic women in the eighteenth century. Members of the Conyers family, which included a number of women who were accomplished botanical artists, may have taken lessons from Georg Ehret, whose work is on view nearby. This drawing reveals an understanding of the Linnaean system of classification, showing all parts of the flower to aid in identification. Conyers records the wallflower with open petals and in bud form. Her skill in describing plants is revealed in the delicate rendering of the tulip’s variegated petals, one of which curls upward slightly as it falls away from the rest of the flower (2022).Status
Not on viewObject number97.22.5
