201 ~ LEMON COLUMBINE, Walcott 1925 Original Print RARE

Pricing & History

Sold for
Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
Sold Date
Source eBay

LEMON COLUMBINE ARTIST: Mary Walcott !! This lovely artistic antique botanical flower print, circa 1925, was extracted from an old folio of flower prints whose goal was to present all the wild flowers native to North America at that time. The species are presented in more scientific presentation used by biologists and scientists, which is as a close-up of the flower on its own on a white background. This famous artist has captured the exquisite detail in the leaves, petals, stem and flower buds. Given the changing world climate and decline in forest and wildlands over the last century, the flowering plants from this series are in many cases quite rare in their wild ecological habitat and are most likely found being cultivated in a florist garden store or greenhouse. Once framed, this print would make a fine interior decorating accent in a bedroom or living room. Great gift for the interior designer decorator or horticulturalist. DESCRIPTION OF FLOWER: Aquilegia flavescens Watson All our native columbines are graceful plants with beautiful flowers, and the lemon columbine is one of the most attractive species. When, in midsummer, at the height of its blooming season, it appears everywhere over the mountain slopes, it affords fine displays of color. At this season the pale lemon-colored flowers are contrasted with large purple asters and other brilliantly tinted blossoms. The flower stems rise eighteen inches to three feet above the fernlike basal leaves. This species of columbine is frequently found at high altitudes, and here the dwarfed flower stems are often only six inches tall. In cliff crevices, with gray rock for a background, it makes entrancing pictures for those whose eyes observe nature's wonderful harmonies. Lemon columbine ranges from Wyoming to Oregon and north to Alberta and British Columbia. The specimen sketched was obtained in the Ptarmigan Valley ten miles from Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, at an altitude of 6,000 feet. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Mary Morris Vaux received a set of watercolor paints at age eight and began experimenting with painting flowers. The Philadelphia family spent summers in the Canadian Rockies where Mary and her brothers studied mineralogy and recorded the flow of glaciers in paintings. Mary returned to western Canada almost every summer and became an active mountain climber and outdoorswoman. One summer a botanist asked her to paint a rare blooming arnica; her success in recording the flower encouraged her to concentrate on botanical illustration. For many years, on foot or horseback, she explored difficult terrain looking for important flowering species to paint. In 1913 Mary Vaux met Charles Doolittle Walcott, then secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, while both were in the Canadian Rockies--she painting and hiking, he conducting geological research. After marrying the next year, the couple spent several months each season in the Canadian Rockies where he continued his studies and she painted hundreds of watercolor studies of native flowers. At the urging of botanists and wild flower enthusiasts, in 1925 a selection of more than four hundred of Mary Walcott's illustrations were published by the Smithsonian Institution. Currently 791 watercolor drawings by Walcott are in the collection of the National Museum of American Art. ARTIST'S DESCRIPTION OF HER ARTWORK: Wild flowers were a joy and inspiration in the happy days of childhood when I was taught to observe and sketch them under the direction of a skilled artist. Years passed before a botanical friend at Glacier, British Columbia, asked me to portray a rare and perishable alpine flower so as to preserve its beauty, color, and graceful outline as a living thing. During succeeding seasons I painted other rare specimens until many of the "living flowers that skirt the eternal frost" in the wildflower gardens of the Canadian Rockies were transferred in color and form to the East, where sketches of t... read more

Items in the Price Guide are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members’ research needs.

Flag item for content or copyright

If this item contains incorrect or inappropriate information please contact us here to flag it for review.

If you are the originator/copyright holder of this photo/item and would prefer it be excluded from our community, contact us here for removal.