{{short description|English natural history illustrator}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Augusta Innes Withers | image = Augusta-Innes-Withers-c1793-1864.jpg | birth_name = Augusta Hanna Elizabeth Innes Baker | birth_date = 1792 | birth_place = Gloucestershire, England | death_date = 1876 | death_place = London | burial_place = Highgate Cemetery | alma_mater = | occupation = Illustrator | years_active = | known_for = | spouse = Theodore Withers }} '''Augusta Hanna Elizabeth Innes Withers''' (née '''Baker'''; 1792, Gloucestershire – 1876, London) was an English natural history illustrator, known for her illustrating of John Lindley's ''Pomological Magazine'' and her collaboration with Sarah Drake on the monumental ''Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala'' by James Bateman. She was appointed "Flower Painter in Ordinary" to Queen Adelaide and later to Queen Victoria. She also produced illustrations for Benjamin Maund's ''Botanis'', the ''Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London'', the ''Illustrated Bouquet'' (1857-1863) and ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''.<ref>'Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators', Volume 1 by Oxford University Press</ref>
== Family background == Augusta was the daughter of a Gloucestershire vicar, chaplain to the Prince Regent. She lived in London all her life and was married to Theodore Gibson Withers, an accountant, who was 20 years her senior. They were married on 23 July 1822 in Marylebone.<ref>{{cite web|title=Theodore Gibson Withers|website=England Marriages, 1538–1973, familysearch.org|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:C658-CVPZ}}</ref> She died in 1876 and was buried in the Withers family grave on the western side of Highgate Cemetery on the 14th August 1876.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Withers |first1=Augusta |title=Highgate Cemetery |url=https://highgate.burialgrounds.co.uk/mapmanagement/#/memorialmanagement/e6bbaac4-3942-4a73-819b-a762acc93290/gravestone/o/persons/29987ab4-57a9-4ff8-8f6e-c62ba3d24792/16b38228-10e8-4570-9fe8-699e09f23b4e?tab=0 |website=Burial Grounds |access-date=29 January 2026}}</ref>
== Career == Besides giving painting classes, she was active as a painter from before 1827 until 1865, exhibiting from 1829 to 1846 at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists and the New Watercolour Society<ref>[http://www.christopherwoodgallery.com/pages/painting_details.cfm?id=430&back=watercol Christopher Wood Gallery] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091123125732/http://www.christopherwoodgallery.com/pages/painting_details.cfm?id=430&back=watercol |date=November 23, 2009 }}</ref> as well as the Society of Female Artists in 1857 and 1858, and where she was a founder member.<ref>Society of Female Artists. First Exhibition. London, 1857; Society of Female Artists. Second Exhibition. London, 1858.</ref>
John Claudius Loudon commented in the 1831 ''Gardener's Magazine'' that her talents were of the highest order, and that "to be able to draw flowers botanically, and fruit horticulturally, that is, with the characteristics by which varieties and subvarieties are distinguished, is one of the most useful accomplishments of your ladies of leisure, living in the country."<ref>[http://www.leicestergalleries.com/index.pl?isa=Metadot::SystemApp::ArtistSearch;op=detail;artist=1834;show_bio=1;printable=1 Leicester Galleries]</ref>
In 1815, in an attempt to clarify the nomenclature of cultivated fruit varieties and reduce the number of synonyms in common use, William Jackson Hooker initiated a project of fruit drawings in watercolour stretching over 10 volumes. Suffering a stroke in 1820, Hooker was unable to finish the work. Four other artists, including Augusta Innes Withers and Barbara Cotton were commissioned to complete the work,<ref>[http://www.rhs.org.uk/Learning/Library/LindleyLondon/PictureLibraryCollections.htm Lindley Library Collections] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090526132110/http://www.rhs.org.uk/Learning/Library/LindleyLondon/PictureLibraryCollections.htm |date=May 26, 2009 }}</ref> ironic since Withers had been refused a position as a botanical artist by Hooker's son, Joseph Dalton Hooker.<ref>[http://www.florilegius.co.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3457&g2_page=2&g2_fromNavId=x9d2f597f Florilegius]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
Withers painted the 12 colour plates for Robert Thompson's ''The gardener's assistant.''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/263509|title=The gardener's assistant : practical and scientific; a guide to the formation and management of the kitchen, fruit, and flower garden, and the cultivation of conservatory, green-house, and stove plants, with a copious calendar of gardening operations /|last1=Thompson|first1=Robert|last2=Withers|first2=Augusta Innes|date=1859|publisher=Blackie & Son|volume=1859|location=London}}</ref>
== Legacy == Her drawings are stored at the Natural History Museum, London, at the Royal Horticultural Society, and at the Fitzwilliam Museum of the University of Cambridge.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey|editor2=Harvey, Joy Dorothy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTSYePZvSXYC&pg=PA1390| page=1390 |isbn=9780415920407 | title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z | year=2000 | publisher=Taylor & Francis }}</ref> There are a few of her letters at Windsor Castle.<ref name=Desmond>{{cite book|editor=Desmond, Ray|chapter=Withers, Mrs. Augusta Innes|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C80QEAAAQBAJ&dq=dictionary+of+british+and+irish+botanists,+withers&pg=PA751| page=751 |isbn=9781000162868 | title=Dictionary of British and Irish Botantists and Horticulturalists Including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers | date=23 December 2020 | publisher=CRC Press }}</ref>
== Illustrations == {{Gallery | title=Paintings by Augusta Innes Withers | width=160 | height=170 | File:Common Muscadine grape RHS.jpeg|''Vitis rotundifolia'' | File:Chysis laevis (spelled Chysis loevis)-Bateman Orch. Mex. Guat. pl. 31 (1842).jpg|''Chysis laevis'' orchid | File:Acineta barkeri (as Peristeria barkeri )-Bateman Orch. Mex. Guat. pl. 8.jpg|''Acineta barkeri'' orchid | File:Gooseberry Crompton Sheba Queen RHS.jpeg|''Ribes uva-crispa''| File:Oncidium incurvum-Bateman Orch. Mex. Guat. pl. 29 (1841).jpg|''Oncidium incurvum'' orchid | File:Barnet raspberry RHS.jpeg|raspberry Barnet | File:Stove Plants.jpg|Allamanda Schottii | File:Greenhouse Shrubs.jpg|Gompholobium splendens}}
{{commons category|Augusta Innes Withers}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.plantillustrations.org/artist.php?id_artist=41 Illustrations by Augusta Innes Withers]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Withers, Augusta Innes}} Category:1792 births Category:1876 deaths Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery Category:19th-century English women painters Category:English botanical illustrators Category:English women illustrators Category:English court painters Category:Artists from Gloucestershire Category:19th-century English painters