Marianne North Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Marianne North Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Marianne North Gallery is a purpose-built exhibition space constructed in red brick with stone dressings, slate and lead roofs. The building was designed as a unified entity in which the architecture provides the setting for the paintings it contains. Its interior is lined with closely-hung oil paintings mounted in their original black moulded wooden frames and gilded fillets, displayed above a dado of vertical panels of wood samples from around the world, also set in black frames. The floors are polychrome encaustic tiles, restored in 2010.

The gallery is T-shaped in plan, comprising a lobby or narthex, a full-height main gallery, and a smaller chamber to the rear flanked by a small room to the south (originally intended as a studio) and by stairs to the upper floor to the north (originally the custodian's accommodation). The gallery is naturally lit by clerestory windows at upper gallery level. The building is set on a raised turfed bank and is reached by a flight of centrally-placed stone steps between shallow parapets.

The exterior presents a symmetrical entrance front in two storeys and three main bays. A central, three-bay, pedimented single-storey entrance lobby breaks forward, flanked on each side by a verandah which wraps around the flanking elevations. The ground floor of the main gallery has no openings apart from the entrance bay. The upper floor windows are grouped 2:3:2, set between brick pilasters with stone dressings positioned inset from the angles of the building, and are flanked by blind brick panels beneath a continuous stone architrave, plain brick frieze and prominent stone dentil cornice, above a shallow continuous cill band. The entrance bay is open-pedimented, with a pair of entrance doors each of two moulded panels, the upper panel glazed with etched glass, set in a slightly battered moulded eared architrave. To each side is a single sash window with a moulded stone head and plain stone sill, recessed between brick pilasters. The pediment has a slender modillion cornice; within the tympanum is a panel inscribed "This Gallery / Containing studies from nature / Painted by her in many lands / Was given in 1882 to these gardens by / Marianne North".

The pedimented side elevations to the front range and rear two-storey extension are similarly treated, each with three grouped upper floor windows between blank brick panels. The verandah has a slightly flared roof supported on cast iron columns, built on a brick base with stone coping and tiled floor. It is reached via stone steps from the turf bank. The rear and side blocks are in red brick but simply detailed. Attached to the south is a single-storey block with a hipped roof and tall brick stack (formerly the studio), with an entrance in a moulded stone architrave opening onto the verandah beneath a brick parapet, and a tripartite sash and four-panelled door in a brick opening to the south-facing elevation. To the north-east is an attached two-storey block with tripartite and single sash windows, a blind ground floor panel and a pair of tall rear stacks. Rear windows overlook an enclosed yard.

The entrance lobby is lined in vertical matchboard panelling with a moulded timber dado and skirting; the ceiling of the pitched roof is similarly lined. A pair of moulded panelled doors in a moulded architrave lead into the gallery, with upper panels of restored etched glass and brass door furniture. The floor is of restored encaustic tiles. A marble bust of Marianne North by Conrad Dressler (1856–1940), commissioned in 1893 and said to be based on her niece who closely resembled her, stands in the lobby. It was presented to the gallery in 1894 by Marianne North's sister, Mrs J A Symonds. The plinth is inscribed "Miss Marianne North / The accomplished artist and traveller in / many lands who painted all the pictures / in this unique collection and presented them to the nation / Born 1830 Died 1890".

The gallery comprises a main rectangular full-height space and a smaller centrally-placed extension to the rear on the axis of the entrance. A continuous upper gallery at clerestory level, not accessible to the public, is lit by the first floor windows and projects over a deep coved cornice behind a slender iron balustrade of panels with cross members, each bearing a central rosette. The first floor windows are set between pilasters that support a simple cornice and a moulded plaster ceiling. Flanking the entrance and internal side doors are painted and gilded panels in oil on wood, depicting foliage and birds, also by Marianne North. The panels of doors leading to rear rooms are similarly painted. Doors have brass finger plates ornamented with low relief foliage and birds and other brass door furniture. The doorway leading to the rear section of the gallery is lined in framed oil paintings, with the soffit in a single painting.

The unique collection of framed oil paintings forms the gallery's principal feature. The paintings were executed from nature in the field, largely on paper, and depict plants either in natural settings augmented with buildings and people or as still-life compositions, sometimes with birds or animals. The pictures are grouped according to their provenance, with the names of areas Marianne North visited labelled in gilded lettering on the frieze. Above the entrance is the dedication "Victoria-Regia". Moving clockwise around the main gallery: Chili, Brazil, Jamaica, America, Ceylon, India, and over the entrance to the rear gallery, Sacred Plants of the Hindus. Continuing clockwise: Singapore, Borneo, Japan, Java, New Zealand and Australia. The small rear gallery is inscribed India, South Africa, Cape of Good Hope, Seychelles and Tenerife.

Between the windows of the upper gallery are 16 still-life oil paintings on canvas, depicting plants on gold leaf backgrounds. These have been restored and re-hung as originally displayed. Similar panels between the windows of the rear gallery are painted as the walls. The reinstated encaustic tile floor is complemented by pendant light fittings.

Throughout the gallery, repeated stencil motifs have been recently restored, including the coved cornice in an anthemion and rose pattern, and the cornice above and upper gallery pilasters and cornice in geometric and floral motifs. The original maroon and green colour scheme has been restored.