Charlotte Caroline Sowerby
Charlotte Caroline Sowerby (1820–1865) (sometimes C.C. Sowerby) was a 19th-century British scientific illustrator and a member of the extensive Sowerby family of naturalist-illustrators.
Biography
[edit]
Charlotte Caroline Sowerby was the oldest daughter of conchologist and illustrator George Brettingham Sowerby I and granddaughter of the naturalist and illustrator James Sowerby.[1][2] Like her father and grandfather, she became a natural history illustrator. Not much is known of her life, but experts consider her illustrations to be of the highest quality.[3]
Some of her work is included in the now-rare book The Illustrated Bouquet (E.G. Henderson & Son, 1857–1864), which includes images by a number of the best-known botanical artists of the period, including Augusta Innes Withers.[1][4][5] Most of the plates in the book are by Sowerby, starting with Plate 10,[6] and range from clematis, dianthus, petunia, and calceolaria to the Australian wildflower Sturt's desert pea (Swainsona formosa, formerly Clianthus dampieri).[7] One illustration of gladiolus takes up a two-page spread.[3]
She also contributed 12 plates to Edward Hamilton's Flora Homeopathica (1852–53).[1]
Although most of Sowerby's known works are botanical illustrations, there is extant an 1854 watercolor by her of a quartz crystal with asbestos inclusions, apparently drawn from a specimen in her family's collection.[8] There are also three drawings of volcanoes made for George Julius Poulett Scrope.[8]
She is buried in a family grave on the west side of Highgate Cemetery with her father George Brettingham Sowerby I and brother George Brettingham Sowerby II.
Legacy
[edit]In 1997, a detail of Sowerby's watercolor of Guzmania splendens was included in a British stamp issue.[9]
Notes and references
[edit]- ^ a b c Desmond, Ray, ed. Dictionary Of British And Irish Botantists And Horticulturalists. Taylor & Francis, 1994, p. 644.
- ^ There is some confusion in the sources about Sowerby's parentage, with some authors listing her as a niece of George Brettingham Sowerby I and others listing her as a daughter of a James Sowerby (presumably James De Carle Sowerby, George's brother). This article follows what seem to be the most reliable sources, which list her as George's daughter.
- ^ a b "Female Botanical Illustrators". V&A: Victoria and Albert Museum website. Accessed Dec. 13, 2015.
- ^ Blunt, Wilfrid. The Art of Botanical Illustration. Dover Publications, 1994, p. 216.
- ^ "Sowerby, Charlotte Caroline (1820-1865)". Donald A. Heald website. Accessed Dec. 13, 2015.
- ^ Seemann, Berthold. The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, vols. 59-60. R. Hardwicke, 1921, p.222.
- ^ Kramer, Jack. Women of Flowers: A Tribute to Victorian Women Illustrators. New York, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1996.
- ^ a b "Sowerby, Charlotte (1820-1865)". AIM25 collections website. Accessed Dec. 13, 2015.
- ^ "British stamps for 1997". CollectGBStamps website. Accessed Dec. 13, 2015.
