Wallflower and Tulip

Flower painting was considered an appropriate pastime for aristocratic women in the eighteenth century. Members of the Conyers family, which included a number of women who were accomplished botanical artists, may have taken lessons from Georg Ehret, whose work is on view nearby. This drawing reveals an understanding of the Linnaean system of classification, showing all parts of the flower to aid in identification. Conyers records the wallflower with open petals and in bud form. Her skill in describing plants is revealed in the delicate rendering of the tulip’s variegated petals, one of which curls upward slightly as it falls away from the rest of the flower.