Wild flowers
Aug 25th, 2008 by houghtonmodern
In 1846, while living at Brook Farm (the Transcendentalist utopian experiment in communal living) in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, artist Marianne Dwight (later Orvis) compiled this album of watercolor flower portraits. Dwight (1816-1901) made a living creating lampshades and paintings, and her detailed punchwork designs can be seen on the cover of the album (click the images to enlarge them):
The album contains twelve paintings of spring and summer flowers.
Pictured below are Lobelia Cardinalis, or Cardinal Flower, for August:
Impatiens Noli Tangere, or Touch-me-not, for August:
And Orchis Fibriata, or Fimbriated Orchis, for July:
Dwight is perhaps best remembered today as a chronicler of daily life at Brook Farm, through correspondence with her friend Anna Parsons. Dwight, along with her parents and siblings, lived at the Farm from 1844-1847, where she taught art and Latin. In 1845, Dwight wrote, “I have now a plan, which I will begin to execute tomorrow, of making some little books for sale…They are to be picture books - wild flowers, birds, and I know not yet what variety…I intend to have the cover of colored Bristol-board, prettily stamped like our fans and shades.” This album seems to be one such book, of which there are very few surviving examples.
pf MS Am 2625. Dwight, Marianne. Wild Flowers, 1846. Purchased with the Edward and Bertha C. Rose Acquisition Fund, the Stanley Marcus Endowment for Rare Books, and the Amy Lowell Trust. Images may not be reproduced without permission.
The Wild flowers by Modern Books and Manuscripts, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at blogs.law.harvard.edu.