Picture Details
American cotton leaves, flowers and boll. Watercolour on paper.
Partner:
Kew GardensImage reference:
ILLUS31.01/39.0Origin:
Madras, IndiaArtist / Date:
P. Vijiahrungun, 1872Size:
537 x 441 mmDescription:
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The Madras Horticultural Society was founded in 1835, later to become the Madras Agri-Horticultural Society in 1860. Artists were employed to record the variety and condition of plants cultivated in the gardens. Initially labelled 'Queen's Land Cotton', the drawing has been corrected to "Sea Island Cotton" by a botanist at Kew. The intense competition from high quality cotton plants grown in the USA resulted in vigorous attempts to cultivate the valuable Sea Island cotton (Gossypium barbadense) in India. The plant proved almost impossible to grow, with only marginal success on the coast of South India achieved by the botanist Robert Wight.
The drawing itself has started to split along a line where it was once folded. The folding of drawings was typical practise when such works of art were seen purely as identification tools. Kew is in the process of carefully unfolding and conserving these illustrations, which are now recognised as important works of art.
