Butterflies, Dragonflies and Demselflies, by Christiana Herringham (1852-1929). c. 1895. Watercolour and gouache on paper. The subject here is a cloud of various kinds of flying insects of different colours, predominantly white, brown and yellow, against a sky-blue background. Some of the insects, particularly the butterflies with their delicate shadings and markings, are depicted in close detail. The gallery label at the Christiana Herringham exhibition at Royal Holloway, University of London, suggested that the choice of this subject may have been the result of the artist's friendship with the geneticist William Bateson (1861-1926), especially since she had been helping him with his research during the summer of 1894. Photograph (taken at the exhibition and reproduced here by kind permission of Royal Holloway, London Univeristy) and text by Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Gallery label at the "Christiana Herringham: Artist, Campaigner, Collector" exhibition at Royal Holloway, University of London, 14 January – 8 March 2019.
Created 6 November 2019