Stella Ross-Craig, 99; illustrator of British flora
Hyfler/Rosner
(Filed: 09/02/2006) Telegraph
Stella Ross-Craig, who died on Monday aged 99, was the
finest and most comprehensive illustrator of British flora,
described by Wilfrid Blunt in his classic The Art of
Botanical Illustration as "unrivalled" in her field.
Blunt's book was published in 1950, and her masterpiece
Drawings of British Plants, which was to earn Stella
Ross-Craig her reputation, had been begun only three years
before, when she sat down and drew a black-and-white line
illustration of a buttercup with taxonomical exactitude.
Drawings of British Plants was published as a series of
paperbacks, the first appearing in 1948, priced six
shillings.
In the introduction Stella Ross-Craig wrote that a work of
such a nature "must inevitably take several years to
complete". In fact, it was not until 1973, and 1,306 plates
later, that the enormous undertaking was finished.
It comprised all the British flowering plants except for the
grasses and sedges (of which illustrated monographs by other
botanists had meanwhile been published), and in 1973 could
be bought in its entirety for £26.20 - the final paperback
in the series selling for £2. By 1978, when it was reissued
in eight hardback volumes, the price had risen to £120.
Now out of print, Stella Ross-Craig's masterpiece has become
a valuable collector's item, although it was first intended
as a guide of the highest standard at a price within the
means of the ordinary enthusiast and schools. This
distinguished it from previous works of the kind, which were
designed for professional botanists, wealthy amateurs or
libraries. Such was the quality and accuracy of the
illustrations that the work soon became a bible for
professionals as much as enthusiasts. In her old age it
amused Stella Ross-Craig to know that five directors of Kew
had been "brought up" on her magnum opus.
As she drew in black and white, colour was not an issue, so
Stella Ross-Craig was able to draw from dried specimens in
the Kew herbarium.
It was nonetheless a considerable feat of art and
imagination to turn something dead, brown and flat into a
vibrant image of a living plant. "They all come alive to
me," was her explanation. Perhaps the answer lay in the fact
that she was a rarity among botanical illustrators in having
been trained as an artist as well as a botanist.
Stella Ross-Craig was born of Scottish parents on March 19
1906 at Aldershot. Her father was a chemist, and she
developed an early interest in botany during her childhood
in Hampshire and Kent. At Thanet Art School she supplemented
her art training with evening botanical classes, studies she
completed at Chelsea Polytechnic.
She made her reputation as an illustrator working for two
periodicals: Curtis's Botanical Magazine and the rather more
academic Hooker's Icones Planarum.
It was not until after the Second World War that she had the
idea of drawing on a bigger scale: "Previous illustrations
were so small. I thought something larger, with more
dissections, would be a good idea." As soon as Kew's then
director, Sir Edward Salisbury, saw her drawings he took her
to a publisher, and her greatest work was begun.
Before the publication of Drawings of British Plants, the
only books of systematic illustration available were lavish
publications, well beyond the means of most amateur
botanists. It was in contrast to such de luxe specialist
volumes that Drawings of British Plants proved so popular,
and not just in Britain, as Stella Ross-Craig's post bag
testified. She completed the drawings at a rate of two a
week, a remarkable feat considering their astonishing
detail.
First she would read everything available about the plant
and then, either from a live example or a dried specimen,
she would work out the presentation and the magnified
diagnostic details.
This would be followed by a detailed drawing in light pencil
on white board, using a dissecting microscope and compass
for the enlargements - vital for identification - and
completed in ink with a lithographic pen. Finally, neat
snippets of printed card would be glued in to provide the
reference key to the likes of suffocated clover, spotted
medick and hottentot fig. The medlar was her favourite of
her drawings.
The pictures were made to be reduced by one third when
published, so the original magnifications refer to the
illustration size - virtually always life-size, as is the
botanical practice. Stella Ross-Craig's attention to
minutiae - sometimes magnified x 30 - is so precise that any
of her hand-sized drawings would still look complex even if
enlarged to fill a billboard.
She thought of herself as an artist first and foremost, but
it was artistry allied to her scientific powers of
observation which allowed her to convey taxonomic niceties
such as the difference between Britain's two native
brambles.
In 1999 Stella Ross-Craig became only the sixth person to
receive the Kew Award medal; in 2003, 55 of the originals
for Drawings of British Plants were exhibited at Kew Gardens
Gallery (now Cambridge Cottage). The show was prompted by
Paul Nesbitt, director of the Inverleith House Gallery in
the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, who exhibited a
selection of the drawings in 2001-02.
This was Stella Ross-Craig's first art exhibition, and she
was 95. The publicity was a disruption for such a quiet and
retiring person but, although she was too frail to travel
north for the show, she was thrilled; and her insistence on
making the selection showed that she had lost none of her
determination. She also agreed to interviews and had her
hair done for a session with a Daily Telegraph photographer.
She recalled happy and sometimes hazardous weekends plant
hunting with her husband, Robert Sealy, the botanist, who
also worked at Kew.
Stella Ross-Craig would have been 100 next month and plans
for a party were well advanced. Her husband predeceased her.