{{short description|British botanical illustrator (1854–1926)}} {{redirect-distinguish|M.Sm.|MSM (disambiguation){{!}}MSM}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox artist | name = Matilda Smith | image = Matilda Smith00.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1854|7|30|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Bombay]], [[Bombay Province]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British Empire]] | death_date = {{death date and age |1926|12|29 |1854|7|30 |df=yes}} | death_place = [[London]], [[England]], [[United Kingdom]] | awards = Silver Veitch Memorial Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society | elected = Linnaean Society | known_for = Botanical illustration }}
'''Matilda Smith''' (30 July 1854 – 29 December 1926) was a [[botanical artist]] whose work appeared in ''[[Curtis's Botanical Magazine]]'' for over forty years.<ref name=biog/> She became the first artist to depict New Zealand's flora in depth, the first official artist of the [[Kew Gardens|Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew]], and the second woman to become an associate of the [[Linnaean Society]].<ref name=uw/> {{Botanist|M.Sm.|Smith, Matilda|inline=1|border=0}}<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1927|title=Matilda Smith, A.L.S.|url=https://issuu.com/kewguildjournal/docs/v4s34p455-all|journal=Journal of the Kew Guild. Annual Report, 1925–1926|volume=1927|pages=527–528|via=ISSUU|archive-date=3 March 2023|access-date=15 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230303204629/https://issuu.com/kewguildjournal/docs/v4s34p455-all|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Biography== [[File:Amorphophallus titanum (Matilda Smith).jpg|thumb|Corpse flower, ''[[Amorphophallus titanum]]'' by Matilda Smith. Plate from ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine'', 1891. Smith drew this plant during its first blooming at [[Kew Gardens]] in 1889.<ref name=kewstory/>]]
Matilda Smith was born in [[Mumbai|Bombay]], [[Company rule in India|India]], on 30 July 1854, but her family emigrated to England when she was a small child.<ref name=kramer/><ref name=uw/> Her interests in botany and botanical art were fostered by her second cousin [[Joseph Dalton Hooker]],<ref name=index/> whose daughter [[Harriet Anne Hooker Thiselton-Dyer|Harriet]] would also go on to become a [[botanical illustrator]].<ref name=kramer/> Hooker was then the director of [[Kew Gardens]] and a talented draughtsman in his own right, and he brought Smith into the Gardens to train as an illustrator.<ref name=uw/><ref name=annual/><ref name=kew/><ref name=KG >{{Cite journal|date=1915|title=Miss Matilda Smith|url=https://issuu.com/kewguildjournal/docs/v3s23p265-all|journal=Journal of the Kew Guild. Annual Report, 1914–1915|volume=1915|pages=265|via=ISSUU|archive-date=28 February 2023|access-date=15 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230228114211/https://issuu.com/kewguildjournal/docs/v3s23p265-all|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Smith especially admired the work of [[Walter Hood Fitch]], who was then the lead artist for ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''.<ref name=kramer/> Despite her limited artistic training, Hooker encouraged her to show the magazine her own work, and in 1878 it first published one of her drawings.<ref name=kramer/> A dispute over pay between Fitch and Hooker—for whom Fitch had been preparing illustrations for several books—led to Fitch's leaving the long-running magazine in 1877. One consequence was that Smith rapidly became a key illustrator at the magazine, at first working alongside [[Harriet Anne Thiselton-Dyer]].<ref name=uw/><ref name=endersby/> In the period 1879–1881, each issue included some 20 of her drawings, and, by 1887, she was almost the sole illustrator for the magazine.<ref name=uw/><ref name=index/> In 1898, she was appointed the magazine's sole official artist.<ref name=kramer/>
Over the forty-odd years between 1878 and 1923, Smith drew more than 2,300 plates for the magazine—only 600 fewer than Fitch, although she received much less recognition for this achievement in her own lifetime.<ref name=uw/><ref name=annual/><ref name=kew/><ref name=page/> As late as the mid 20th century, art teacher [[Wilfrid Jasper Walter Blunt|Wilfrid Blunt]], in his book ''The Art of Botanical Illustration'', dismissed her as an artist of inferior skills, praising her faintly for her charm, her work ethic, and her usefulness in creating a record of otherwise unpictured plants.<ref name=blunt/><ref name=horwood/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-SamEarl-t1-body1-d14-d5.html|title=John Nugent Fitch (1843–1927)|last=|first=|date=|website=nzetc.victoria.ac.nz|publisher=Victoria University of Wellington|access-date=9 January 2018}}</ref> In this he follows a pattern first noticeable in the Victorian era of progressively devaluing botany and botanical art as women entered the field professionally.<ref name=cjh/> Other authors, however, both now and in her own day, have admired the clarity and precision of her drawing, and her four decades of employment at the center of the British botanical world testifies to a continuing value for her skills.<ref name=annual/>
In the course of Smith's long association with Kew Gardens, she created 1,500 plates for volumes of ''[[Icones Plantarum]]'', a monumental survey of Kew's plants then being edited by Hooker.<ref name=uw/> Beginning with Plate 1354, she was the sole artist for this series, with funds being provided to keep her in this role for as long as she chose to do it. She also made reproductions of plates missing from incomplete volumes in Kew's library, and she became the first botanical artist to extensively depict the flora of New Zealand.<ref name=uw/><ref name=annual/>
She was especially admired for her ability to create credible illustrations from dried, flattened, and sometimes imperfect specimens.<ref name=kramer/><ref name=uw/><ref name=annual/> Her exceptional contributions to Kew Gardens led to her being designated the first official botanical artist of Kew Gardens in 1898. In 1921, the year she retired from Kew, she was named an associate of the Linnean Society—only the second woman to have achieved this honor.<ref name=kramer/><ref name=uw/> She was also awarded the Silver Veitch Memorial Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society for her botanical draughtsmanship generally and for her contributions to ''[[Curtis's Botanical Magazine]]'' in particular.<ref name=kramer/><ref name=uw/><ref>{{CiteQ|Q126958029}}</ref>
The plant genera ''Smithiantha'' (in the family [[Gesneriaceae]]) and ''Smithiella'' (viz. ''Smithiella myriantha'', a synonym of ''[[Pilea|Pilea myriantha]]'') were named in her honor. The Matilda Smith Memorial Prize sponsored by the Kew Guild in her memory is given to the best practical student.<ref name=KG/>
==Death== Smith died on 29 December 1926 at Gloucester Road, [[Kew]], and is buried in [[Richmond Cemetery]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Find a will|url=https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar?surname=smith&yearOfDeath=1927&page=38#calendar|website=GOV.UK|quote=SMITH Matilda of 4 Gloucester-road Kew Surrey spinster died 29 December Probate London 7 March}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=1927|title=Miscellaneous Notes. Miss Matilda Smith|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4107545|journal=Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)|volume=1927|issue=3|pages=135|jstor=4107545}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Durant|first=S|title=The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists|publisher=Bristol: Thoemmes|year=2004|editor-last=Lightman|editor-first=B|pages=1841–1842|chapter=Smith, Matilda (1854–1926)|doi=10.5040/9781350052529-1051|isbn=9781350052529}}</ref><ref name=KG/>
== Publications illustrated by Smith == * Cheeseman, T. F. (1914) [https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.12029 ''Illustrations of the New Zealand flora'']. Wellington, John Mackay.
{{Gallery | title=Illustrations by Matilda Smith in ''[[Curtis's Botanical Magazine]]'' | width=160 | height=170 |File:Pandanus furcatus 142-8671.jpg|''[[Pandanus furcatus]]'', 1916. |File:Costus spectabilis00.jpg|''[[Costus spectabilis]]'', 1905. |File:Passiflora sanguinolenta by Matilda Smith.jpg|''[[Passiflora sanguinolenta]]'', 1900. |File:CaptureEchinocereusfendleriMSmith.jpg|''[[Echinocereus fendleri]]'', 1880. |File:CapturePhyteumacomosumL MSmith.jpg |''[[Phyteuma comosum]]'', 1880. |Lilium henryi 4693.jpg|''[[Lilium henryi]]'', 1891. |Lonicera chaetocarpa 145-8804.jpg|''[[Lonicera hispida]]'' (as ''L. chaetocarpa''), 1919. }}
== References == {{Reflist| refs=
<ref name=annual>"Miss Matilda Smith" {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304185541/http://www.kewguild.org.uk/media/pdfs/v3s23p265-1.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }}. Kew Guild Annual Report, 1915.</ref>
<ref name=horwood>Horwood, Catherine. ''Women and Their Gardens: A History from the Elizabethan Era to Today''. Chicago Review Press, 2012.</ref>
<ref name=blunt>Blunt, Wilfrid, and William Thomas Stearn. ''The art of botanical illustration: an illustrated history''. Courier Corporation, 1950.</ref>
<ref name=index>Hemsley, W. Botting. "The History of the Botanical Magazine 1787–1904". In ''Index to the Botanical Magazine''. London: Lovell Reeve & Co., 1906, pp. v–lxiii.</ref>
<ref name=uw>Sampson, F. Bruce. [http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-SamEarl-t1-body1-d14-d4.html "Matilda Smith (1854–1926)"]. In ''Early New Zealand Botanical Art''. Reed Methuen, 1985.</ref>
<ref name=kramer>Kramer, Jack 1996. ''Women of Flowers: A Tribute to Victorian Women Illustrators''. New York, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1996.</ref>
<ref name=kew>[http://www.kew.org/discover/blogs/history-working-women-kew "The History of Working Women at Kew"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912011947/http://www.kew.org/discover/blogs/history-working-women-kew |date=2015-09-12 }}. Kew Royal Botanic Gardens website. Accessed 2007-09-03.</ref>
<ref name=kewstory>Parker, Lynn, and Kiri Ross-Jones. ''The Story of Kew Gardens''. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2013.</ref>
<ref name=biog>[[Marilyn Ogilvie|Ogilvie, Marilyn]], and [[Joy Harvey]]. ''The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century''. Routledge, 2003.</ref>
<ref name=page>Page, Judith W., and Elise L. Smith. ''Women, Literature, and the Domesticated Landscape: England's Disciples of Flora, 1780–1870''. Vol. 76. Cambridge University Press, 2011.</ref>
<ref name=endersby>Endersby, Jim. ''Imperial nature: Joseph Hooker and the practices of Victorian science''. University of Chicago Press, 2008.</ref>
<ref name=cjh>Jackson-Houlston, Caroline. "'Queen Lilies'?: The Interpenetration of Scientific, Religious and Gender Discourses in Victorian Representations of Plants". ''Journal of Victorian Culture'' 11.1 (2006) 84–110. {{doi|10.3366/jvc.2006.11.1.84}}</ref>
}}
==External links== {{commons category}} * {{BHL author|10106}} * [http://www.plantillustrations.org/artist.php?id_artist=106 A gallery of 4663 plant illustrations by Smith]
==Further reading == *[http://art-botanical.org/DesertBreeze/012018-matilda-smith-botanical-artist-Kew-Gardens.html ''Matilda Smith and painting the titan arum''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326064017/http://art-botanical.org/DesertBreeze/012018-matilda-smith-botanical-artist-Kew-Gardens.html |date=26 March 2018 }} Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society Newsletter January 2018.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Matilda}} [[Category:British botanical illustrators]] [[Category:1854 births]] [[Category:1926 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century British painters]] [[Category:20th-century British painters]] [[Category:20th-century British women artists]] [[Category:Burials at Richmond Cemetery]] [[Category:British people in British India]] [[Category:19th-century British women painters]]