Picture Details
Mango fruit, watercolour, pencil and ink on paper.
Partner:
Kew GardensImage reference:
ILLUS53.01/7.0FOrigin:
Darbhanga, IndiaArtist / Date:
Charles Maries, 1886Size:
515 x 359 mmDescription:
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The inscription on the illustration refers to Charles Maries, a collector of all manner of flora and fauna, and an expert on Indian botany. After extensive travels through China and Japan collecting plants for the London growers Veitch and Sons, Maries returned to England in 1880, where he handed over his Herbarium to Kew. He was sent to India by Sir Joseph Hooker to the Maharajah of Darbhunga, for whom he designed his extensive gardens. Later Maries went on to manage the State Gardens of the Maharajah of Gwalior. This illustration painted in Darbhanga was one of many by Maries recording the varieties of Mango grown in India. Darbhanga had a long tradition of cultivating elaborate and beautiful gardens. Maries discovered Mango trees over three hundred years old still growing in gardens originally laid out by the Mughal emperor Akbar.
