Flower Study (ca. 1876-1878)

Mary Vaux Walcott prints bring the wildflowers of North America into your home, painted in clear, gentle watercolour by the artist called the "Audubon of Botany". Walcott spent summers climbing in the Canadian Rockies, finding rare flowers to paint, and the Smithsonian published about 400 of her plates as North American Wild Flowers. Our collection of fine art prints includes her lilies, columbines, orchids, arnicas and pitcher plants.

About Mary Vaux Walcott

Mary Morris Vaux was born in Philadelphia on 31 July 1860 into a wealthy Quaker family. After leaving the Friends Select School in 1879 she took up watercolour painting. From 1887 she and her brothers went back to western Canada almost every summer, where she became a keen mountaineer, photographer and the first woman to climb Mount Stephen. She was a founding member of the Alpine Club of Canada.

When a botanist asked her to paint a rare blooming arnica, she was encouraged to focus on botanical illustration, and she spent years exploring the Rockies for important flowering plants. With her brothers she also photographed and measured the Illecillewaet Glacier for 25 years, among the first formal glacier studies in Canada.

In 1914 she married the paleontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1925 the Smithsonian published about 400 of her illustrations in the five volumes of North American Wild Flowers, and in 1935 Illustrations of North American Pitcher-Plants included 15 of her paintings. She served on the federal Board of Indian Commissioners and was president of the Society of Woman Geographers. She died in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, on 22 August 1940.

Style and Subjects

Walcott painted each wildflower as a single living plant, usually on a plain light background, with roots, leaves and blossoms drawn accurately from specimens she found herself. Her watercolour is soft and transparent, letting the natural colour of each flower show.

Her subjects are mostly the wildflowers of the Rockies and eastern North America: lady's slippers, glacier lilies, columbines, arnicas, gentians and paintbrushes, along with the strange forms of pitcher plants. The plates have a quiet, fresh, outdoor feeling.

Famous Works

• North American Wild Flowers (1925), Smithsonian Institution. Five volumes with about 400 of her wildflower plates.
• Woolly Arnica (Arnica tomentosa) (1920). The flower family that first turned her toward botanical painting.
• Showy Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium reginae) (1924). A pink and white orchid of northern woods and bogs.
• Lemon Columbine (Aquilegia flavescens) (1925). A pale yellow columbine of the western mountains.
• Glacierlily (Erythronium grandiflorum) (1899). A yellow alpine lily that blooms at the edge of melting snow.
• Alberta Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata) (1920), Smithsonian American Art Museum. A flame-red mountain wildflower.
• Sweet Pitcherplant (Sarracenia rubra) (1920). One of her studies of pitcher plants, the subject of a 1935 Smithsonian book.

Decorating with Walcott Prints

Walcott's wildflowers are perfect for a bedroom, guest room or bathroom where you want calm, natural colour. A grid of six or nine plates in pale wood or white frames makes a gentle feature wall.

Choose mountain flowers such as glacier lilies and columbines for a cabin or rustic interior, and her pitcher plants or lady's slippers for a garden room or study with plants.

FAQ

Who was Mary Vaux Walcott?

Mary Vaux Walcott (1860–1940) was an American artist and naturalist from Philadelphia, known for her watercolour paintings of North American wildflowers. She has been called the "Audubon of Botany".

What is North American Wild Flowers?

It is a five-volume work published by the Smithsonian in 1925 with about 400 of her illustrations and short descriptions. The proceeds went to the Smithsonian's endowment.

Where did she find her flowers?

Many came from her summer trips to the Canadian Rockies, where she climbed and explored to find important flowering species to paint.

Was she also a scientist?

She studied the Illecillewaet Glacier with her brothers for 25 years, measuring and photographing its retreat, in one of the first formal glacier studies in Canada.

Where are her original paintings?

Many of her wildflower watercolours are in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington.

Related Artists

• John James Audubon: the bird painter whose name she earned as the "Audubon of Botany"
• Pierre-Joseph Redouté: the great flower painter of an earlier century
• Anna Atkins: another woman who made plant studies for science
• Sydenham Edwards: botanical illustrator of garden and wild plants