During the 19th century, early 20th century, it was extremely expensive to illustrate a book about roses using colour. Where images were used wood cut images were preferred. The one or two books that did contain colour were either books including images painted and lithographed by the author such as ‘Beauties of the Rose’ by Henry Curtis or ‘Rosarium Monographia’ by John Lindley or a book such as ‘The Rose Garden’ by William Paul for which, after much hard work, the author managed to acquire sponsorship.
Fortunately for us, 150 years or more later, the illustrations within some of these books have remained just as bright and beautiful as when first printed. For some of us the illustrations will have far greater appeal than the text!
Historical literature tells us that Josephine Bonaparte (1763 – 1814), who became the Empress of France between 1804 and 1809 as the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, is remembered for her extensive rose gardens which displayed all the roses known at the time. Strangely there appears to be no list of the roses that Josephine grew. There also seems to be few records of her rose gardens or her desire to grow all roses. Could her beautiful and extensive rose gardens at Malmaison, outside Paris, be a myth.
Undoubtedly Josephine, inspired by her ownership of Malmaison from 1799 to her death in 1814, became interested in plants, trees and shrubs to the point of wanting to collect as many exotic species as possible. She gathered plants from across the world to grow in her gardens which she had designed in the English style by a Scottish horticulturalist Thomas Blaikie. The parkland style of Capability Brown suited the huge acreage of Malmaison well and, together with the huge orangery and greenhouses she had built, accommodated Josephine’s exotic trees and shrubs. Her plants such as eucalyptus, heathers and myrtles, hibiscus, phlox, camellias, geraniums, cacti, rhododendrons, dahlias, tulips and hyacinths were catalogued by Charles Francois Brisseau de Mirbel and illustrated and described by Pierre – Joseph Redoute and Ventenat respectively in ‘Jardin de la Malmaison’ published in 1803.
Josephine Bonaparte. (Bridgeman Images)
There are no roses recorded and according to Jennifer Potter, horticultural historian, visitors to the garden soon after her death such as the Englishman Seth William Stevenson noted a garden showing signs of decay with some roses growing with other flowers shaded by cypresses, willows and lilacs. A year later a group of Scottish gardeners visiting French gardens of interest do not refer to roses at all in the Malmaison garden only an estate slipping into neglect. These gardeners described the collections of roses on the drive from Paris and also in the Paris Luxembourg gardens. They also visited the nursery of M. Noisette, the famous rose grower but did not mention roses at Malmaison.
The many exotic trees and even a menagerie of animals including monkeys, a kangaroo, llama and black swans are documented but no roses so from where has Josephine’s reputation for being a rose lover and the idea of her huge collection of roses come? Her love of gathering plants from across the world even when her husband was leading the armies in Europe became well known. She was able to make special arrangements for plants to be sent to her. One such arrangement was with the London nursery of Lee and Kennedy who were able to send plants across the Channel during the battles with England. Lee and Kennedy were suppliers of roses as well as other plants and trees. It is known, as a result of Francois Joyaux, a French rose expert searching the National Archives that she imported some roses from them including R’ chinensis, R. multifloria ‘Cornea’, R. semperflorens (introduced into Britain as Slaters Crimson China) and the white moss rose R. centifolia ‘muscosa alba’ (known as Shailers White Moss). The new roses from China were being imported by the British rather than the French and British nurseries were known to be hybridising them.
Malmaison. (istockphoto)
Joyaux has also been able to list some roses that Josephine imported from unnamed suppliers including R. pendulina, R, virginiana, three moss roses and a Centifolia rose known as ‘Unique’. Other roses have been named by the French Rose expert M. Auguste de Pronville who saw a Damask rose growing in the garden which he identified as R. damascene carnea. He also noticed a variety of Scotch rose R. spinosissima and R. berberifolia. It is thought Josephine may also have bought from the Parisian rose growers such as Cels, Boursault and Vilmorin but there is only evidence of her purchases from the amateur rose grower Andre du Pont. Bills show that he supplied her with large numbers of roses during 1808 and 1809 but not their names.
Had Josephine been developing her rose collection when she died so tragically from Diptheria? The people of France were saddened by her death; she had acquired a reputation for being such a kind and gracious lady who had suffered intensely when Napoleon divorced her. Is it possible that as roses were becoming more popular at this time the two beauties became linked? A decade after her death Josephine was credited with igniting in the French a passion for growing roses. J P Vibert, well-known in the rose world spread the word that Josephine had amassed a rich and varied collection of plants but ‘roses were a special favourite of hers’. Had other rosarians ‘jumped on the bandwagon’? In another two decades her reputation as France’s premier rose enthusiast was secure and the idea that she was growing all the known roses at Malmaison was embedded in the literature and remains so today. France’s love of roses certainly grew after her death.
Pierre-Josephe Redoute. (public domain)
It is often thought that ‘Les Roses’ illustrated by Pierre – Joseph Redoute and Claude Antoine Theory is a record of the roses grown at Malmaison but this is known to be untrue. After their first publication under the patronage of Josephine they continued with the publication of ‘Les Liliacees’ between 1802 and 1816 which recorded many of her exotics not only those of the Lily family. The idea of ‘Les Roses’ came from Redoute himself who loved roses. It is believed he and Thory searched the rose gardens of Paris, including those of Ms Thouin, Le Lieur, Dupont, Cels, Vilmorin, Noisette, Descemet and Bigulin, for suitable subjects and Redoute also painted roses from his own rose garden. He already had a number of roses in his portfolio, a number from the garden of M Cels and two from Malmaison, R. berberifolia and R. gallica purpurea veluntina. As he was employed to paint flowers for various publications and give lessons in flower painting the majority of the portraits in ‘Les Roses’ were completed in his own time. His biography ‘The Man who Painted Roses’ by Antonia Ridge suggests that he told Josephine he wanted to paint all known roses. ‘Les Roses’ containing 169 plates was released in instalments and published in three volumes between 1817 and 1824, some time after the death of Josephine. It is not known how many roses were painted from the Malmaison garden.
Redoute Roses. (public domain)
When recreating her garden Jules Gravereaux, nearly 100 years later, gathered together all the roses existing at the time of her death believing that she had them in her collection. In 1911 when 197 roses were planted at Malmaison it was a wonderful tribute to Josephine and the rose. Whatever the truth about her rose garden it is undisputed that she did love plants one of which was the rose.
I haven’t bought a painting like this before but I thought the roses were beautifully painted and the glass of wine only added to the composition! One always hopes that a painting such as this may be by a professional artist but the research I have done leads me nowhere. The signature is unclear and although it begins ‘ J van ‘ I am under no illusion that it is by one of that great family of artists.
I will appreciate the painting for what it is; a very attractive picture. Maybe the style of glass will be able to tell me something . . . . . .
There are many more beautiful paintings of gardens used to illustrate a range of gardening books published at the beginning of the century by these and other artists. No doubt I will share some of these at a later date.
No one knows how long roses have been gracing the Earth but it is thought to be thousands of years. There is sufficient evidence to prove this in the form of fossils, archaeological finds and writings. It is also not known how many species of rose were the first ancestors of the roses we have today. What is known is that roses only grew in the Northern Hemisphere and they grew right across from the Far East through Western Europe to North America.
It is now thought that the number of species roses was between 100 and 150 but only about 24 of those species roses were the ancestors of all the millions of roses we have in our gardens today.
Three species roses: R. alba, R. arvensis and R. canina
What is interesting is that until relatively recently, the middle of the 18th century, the rosarians of the West and the East had been growing and developing their roses without any knowledge of each other. Opportunities for travel and exploration were limited so the Europeans did not know of the glorious range of colours of the Chinese varieties and the Chinese did not know of the glorious fragrances of the European roses. Each followed their own course but it is fair to say that in the Far East, probably as a result of the fact that 85% of all species roses were indigenous to this area, the rosarians were ahead of the game as they were in gardening generally.
Throughout the centuries the species roses hybridised and in Europe we had the beautiful Gallicas, Centifolias, Damasks, Moss and Albas. The colour palette was limited as all these roses ranged from a creamy white through to a dark magenta. There were no yellows, oranges or reds. There is little documentation in English on the range of hybrids in the Far East to determine the extent of the range, but their roses certainly had a greater range of colours.
R. gallica: now thought to be a hybrid but was thought to be a species rose.
The famous damascena roses grown commercially.
Rosa mundi.
At the end of the 18th century there was the start of a ‘rose revolution’. One or two hybrids from China began to creep into Western Europe but their origins were difficult to trace. The first of these were Slaters Crimson China, introduced in 1792, Parsons Pink China, introduced in 1793, Humes Blush China introduced in 1809 and Parks Yellow Tea Scented China introduced in 1824. Not only did the Chinas bring a greater colour range but they also had another useful attribute; that of repeat flowering, something that most European roses did not do. The roses from China also had fewer thorns and smoother leaves.
The China roses were, and still are, grown in Europe in their own right. However, there is evidence to show that they are in the parentage of many of our more recent old roses that came after the introduction of the Chinas, such as the Portland, the Bourbons, The Teas and the Hybrid Perpetuals. They are very much in the parentage of the first of the modern roses, the Hybrid Teas but sadly because rose breeding was left largely to chance and parentage could not be accurately recorded it is difficult to prove parentage of many of our early roses. Fortunately another ‘revolution’ in the rose world took place towards the end of the 19th century but that is another story.
The Chinese roses have allowed us to develop bright yellow and orange roses.
It took the skills and common sense of one man to revolutionise the rose world. This man took chance and luck out of rose breeding and replaced them with science and integrity. From the time that Henry Bennett started to apply his knowledge as a cattle breeder to the breeding of roses there has been no concern about the parentage of a rose. He knew exactly who the two parents of his new roses were; there was no element of doubt. Nothing was left to chance; rose breeding became a scientific process.
During the 1850s and 60s Henry Bennett was a Wiltshire tenant farmer rearing cattle and growing wheat. Although he was successful he could see that as time passed it was becoming more difficult for a farmer to make a good living. Rather than bemoan his situation he realised that he must diversify. He was a man with a large family who relied on him as the breadwinner.
Henry Bennett – a farmer who became a rose breeder. (photo: public domain)
He could see that the nation was becoming besotted with roses. Since the introduction of roses from China in the late 18th century a greater range of roses could be grown; more colours, continual flowering, different habit of growth. Roses were becoming increasingly popular in gardens, for cutting and for showing. He began to realise that perhaps he could somehow link into this growing industry.
He started by growing a few roses, reading what he could and travelling to France as he could see that the roses he grew largely had French names so this is where he knew the knowledge must be. He visited several French growers but learned little. When they wanted to hybridise a rose all was left to chance – the wind and the rain and many roses actually self pollinated rather than cross pollinated. The seeds of these roses provided a lottery of resulting seedlings.
Disappointed but inspired by what he had discovered in France he set about ‘engineering’ a rose. He thought about the type of rose he wished to create, form, colour etc. and then decided on which two parents might make this possible. He then stripped the stamens and pollen from the rose he wished to provide the seed (the female) so that she could not fertilise herself and then transferred pollen physically and intentionally from the other rose he designated as the male. He then only had to wait until the female rose produced her seeds, hoping that one or two would produce a bloom similar to that he had chosen to engineer.
Sadly, he had little success as the majority of his seeds did not ripen and any seedlings were poor. He revisited France as he heard stories of success but found little evidence of scientific rose breeding. He became popular with the rose breeders of Lyon and the South to the point that they named roses after him. He must have been quite a personality. Although he returned with little factual evidence for the way forward he did return with some ideas.
Henry Bennett thought that one major problem may be the climate so he set up a heated greenhouse. The roses he chose as female parents were planted in pots and given heat. With the Tea-Scented roses flowering almost continually as a result of this luxurious treatment he was able to fertilise them over a longer period and they were able to carry many more seed pods. His problem of producing ripe seed was resolved. The glass house produced other benefits such as no wind or rain and few insects.
In 1879 he was able to introduce ten roses for all of which he was able to guarantee parentage and the fact that each was a cross between a Hybrid Perpetual and a Tea Rose. He called them ‘Pedigree Hybrids of the Tea Rose’ with the word pedigree referring to the reliability of their parentage. They were not heralded as the most fabulous of roses but they were recognised as being bred scientifically and other rosarians hurried to follow his methods. The French shortened the name to Hybrid de Thé and the Hybrid Tea rose was born.
A typical modern Hybrid Tea rose (Alex). Other classes of rose are now bred by the method used by Henry Bennett.
I search the auction houses at least weekly for rose paintings that are affordable for me, the amateur collector. Reluctantly I pass over the Harold Claytons, Cecil Kennedys, James Nobles and the like leaving those to the lucky people who can justify paying for them. Occasionally I come across a painting that appeals to me just as much as those by the fine artists who are well known. A typical example is my most recent find by Arthur Fidler, an artist whose name I do not know.
In a web search I found one or two other paintings by him but nothing about him personally. To me the beautiful rose painting looks so skilfully executed I cannot believe I have not ‘discovered’ him before. I am not a reliable art critic and only judge by what I like so you must make a judgement yourself.
Shakespeare’s rose garden; an Elizabethan stage full of roses. This great playwright and poet uses the rose more than any other flower to illustrate his language and convey his meaning. How many times he refers to a specific variety of rose or roses in general I do not know. Depending on who you believe, it’s somewhere between 50 and over 70! Some even suggest 100. I do know, however, that he relies on the rose many times to make his point and each mention is a joy to read. It seems he appreciated roses, their charm and fragrance and we can imagine a beautiful rose garden through his writing.
Roses were grown in the Elizabethan gardens not only for their beauty and fragrance but also for their medicinal, culinary and cosmetic uses. Many of the larger houses would have a Still Room where roses would be used with other plants to create fragrant items such as perfumed bags (sweete bags), potpourri, pomanders, rose water and incense burners. These would mask the odours of poor sanitation. A myriad of medicinal remedies to cure the minor ailments of everyday life would also be made by the diligent housewife and her servants.
Blooming in Shakespeare’s garden are several species roses and hybrids including: the Musk Rose – R moschata, the Damask Rose – R damascena, R. alba, R. gallica, R. gallica versicolor (Rosa Mundi), the Provencal rose, the Eglantine Rose or sweet briar – R. rubinigosa and the Wild Dog Rose – R. canina. It is likely that a collection of rose varieties also flourish but of course rose varieties in Shakespeare’s lifetime were not as numerous as they are today but were fewer and wilder in habit and growth but no less beautiful and fragrant. (These are grouped as species and hybrids here as it is not clear which are species and which are hybrids). Throughout this story the roses are referred to by their common names as they were known by the majority of people in the days of Shakespeare.
Wild species roses in the hedges.
R. arvensis
R,canina
Shakespeare refers to “Cakes of roses” as part of the stock-in-trade of the Apothecary in Romeo and Juliet and “Rosewater” in the prologue of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. The Gallica Rose, one of the most ancient of roses, was a favourite for drying and using as a source of fragrance. Although Shakespeare does not mention the Gallica Rose by name it is likely to be the ‘red rose’ in his writings. The Musk rose was also favoured for its perfume as it was the rose with immense clusters of blooms which perfumed the air and chosen by Shakespeare to adorn Titania’s bower.
From war to romance; whatever Shakespeare’s subject he liked to enhance his meaning with roses, their beauty and particularly their fragrance. His knowledge of roses illustrates his poetic lines with the symbolism and imagery which allow us to picture the beautiful rose blooms in his garden.
The Gallica and Alba roses come into their own in the conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster in Henry VI parts one and two. Before the Wars of the Roses Shakespeare refers to the intention of the Duke of York to ‘grapple with’ the House of Lancaster.
‘Till Henry, surfeiting in joys of love
With his new bride and England’s dear bought queen,
And Humphrey with the peers be fall’n at jars;
Then I will raise aloft the milk-white rose,
With whose sweet smell the air shall be perfum’d
And in my standard bear the arms of York,
To grapple with the House of Lancaster,
And force perforce I’ll make him yield the crown,
Whose bookish rule has pull’d fair England down.’
Henry VI Part 2 Act 1 Scene 1.
The plucking of the red and white roses as imagined in a painting.
In reality, the power struggle ignited around financial and social troubles after the 100 Years War, which, combined with the mental infirmity and weak rule of Henry VI, revived interest in Richard, the Duke of York’s claim to the throne. The Wars of the Roses were ignited, a constant battleground between the Houses of York, with an emblem of a white rose and Lancaster, with an emblem of a red rose.
Shakespeare creates a scene in Henry VI Part 1 where the opposing parties choose sides, represented by the red or white rose, before the battles begin:
Plantagenet
‘Let him that is a true born gentleman
And stands upon the honour of his birth
If he suppose that I have pleaded truth
From of this briar pluck a white rose.’
Somerset
Let him that is no coward and no flatterer,
But dare maintain the party of the truth,
Pluck a red rose off the thorn with me.
Henry VI Part 1 Act 2 Scene 4
Years and many battles later, culminating in the Battle of Bosworth, the victor Henry VII, after taking the throne, married Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter and heir of Edward IV thereby uniting the two claims to the throne and bringing the roses together. The Tudor rose was formed, where the red rose surrounds the white. The rose has been the national emblem of England since that time.
Shakespeare gave Henry this final speech:
We will unite the white rose and the red:
Smile Heaven upon the fair conjunction
That long hath frown’d upon their enmity.’
The House of Tudor ruled England until 1603, with the death of Elizabeth I, granddaughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.
The white rose of York whether that of reality or Shakespeare is thought to be the Alba rose or Dog Rose and the red rose of Lancaster is more certainly the Gallica Rose. The Alba Roses are a very old group and native to the western hemisphere. It is thought they were brought to Britain by the Romans and were used not only for their beauty and fragrance but also their medicinal properties. They can also be seen in paintings from the Middle Ages onwards. It is generally agreed that they are a result of natural hybridisation between the Damask Rose and the Dog Rose. The Alba rose grows taller than the other old roses and was formerly known as the Tree Rose.
The Dog Rose is a native of Europe. It is likely that Shakespeare would have grown these roses in the hedgerows surrounding the garden rather than in the garden itself as the Dog Rose is a very pale five petalled rose with little to offer other than its delicate fragrance.
Gallica versicolor.
Shakespeare does not mention the York and Lancaster rose by name but this could be the variegated Gallica versicolor or Rosa mundi with its striped petals which has been known for centuries. It could also be the Damask versicolor rose which is not striped but has the occasional red petal amongst its white ones. He refers to this rose several times notably in Sonnet XCIX:
‘The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,
One blushing shame, another white despair,
A third, nor red nor white, has stol’n of both
And to his robbery had annexed thy breath.’
And Sonnet CXXX which gives weight to the Damask rose:
‘I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks.’
Turning to romance the story of Romeo and Juliet contains probably the most famous of Shakespeare’s references to roses. He relies on the fragrance of the rose to allow Juliet to explain to herself that she and Romeo can solve the problem of their opposing families. Sadly he does not name the rose but knows they are all fragrant and beautiful . . . . .
Juliet
‘Tis thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.’
Shakespeare could have been referring to any of his fragrant roses here but in A Midsummer Night’s Dream he is more specific. When Oberon is looking for Titania so he can ‘streak her eyes’ with the juice from a flower that will make her fall in love with the first person she sees, he says to Puck
‘I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine;
There sleeps Titania sometimes of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;’
And when Titania wakes and falls in love with Bottom, who has been given an ass’s head by Puck, she says to him:
‘Come sit down upon this flowery bed,
Why I thy amiable cheeks do coy
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.’
The Musk rose is a native of Southern Europe and North Africa but the Musk Rose of Shakespeare is likely to have been R.arvensis, a native of Britain and Europe. It still grows in many of our copses and hedgerows and flowers later than the Dog Rose. It has creamy white wide-open flowers and yellow stamens and is very fragrant. It is also possibly the ‘milk white rose’ found in Henry VI. The Musk Rose is very definitely more pink than creamy white and was only brought into the country in the reign of Elizabeth 1st.
R. arvensis
Eglantine is commonly called the Sweet Briar but was known as Eglantine in the days of Shakespeare. It is a beautiful wild, five petalled rose which is a delicate pink with a strong apple like fragrance. Whether in the hedgerows or the garden I am sure that Shakespeare appreciated these fragrant roses.
The Winters Tale, can be regarded as a comedy or romance and is a complicated play where Shakespeare chooses more roses from his Elizabethan rose garden. They are included in Act 4 Scene 4. Towards the end of the scene Autolycus enters singing:
Lawn as white as driven snow;
Cyprus black as e’er the crow;
Gloves as sweet as Damask roses.
He could not have a rose garden without a Damask Rose, which like the Gallica Rose dates back to ancient times. It is said to have been widely grown by the Persians and brought to Europe by the Crusaders. The Damasks are usually very fragrant and have been used to make rose oil for many centuries. It is known, also, that dried rose petals were often kept with gloves to keep them fragrant.
R. damascena being grown commercially for oil.
This mention of the Winter’s Tale is also likely to refer to a rose because roses have been propagated like this for many years and for a serious rose gardener the knowledge of propagation is essential:
You see, sweet maid, we marry
A gentler scion to the wildest stock,
And make conceive a bark of baser kind
By bud or nobler race: this is art
Which does mend nature, change it rather, but
The art itself is nature.
The main groups of old roses found in England before the introduction of roses from China, are all included in Shakespeare’s garden apart from Centifolias and Moss. These roses did not appear until the end of the 16th century and this was in Holland where they were being developed. The Gallicas, the Albas and the Damasks, together with several of the native species roses flower abundantly and freely in Shakespeare’s poetry and plays and enhances them with their beauty and fragrance. There are further references to ‘blown roses’ ‘damask’d roses’, ‘buds’ ‘thorns’ and so on in a number of his sonnets and plays but we can already imagine both the beauty and fragrance of that Elizabethan garden.
I have recently added a story about Catharina Klein to the Story page so I thought this would be an appropriate snippet. I must have at least 5 or 6 hundred of her paintings on cards as I have been collecting for a while now. There are two in particular that I would love to find in order to complete a set of four. I do not know why these cards appeal but they do. Perhaps it is because they stand out as different from the rest. As you can see I have the red and the yellow but there is also a pink and apricot in the set. I know because I have seen them on Pinterest where a lucky person was displaying them.
There are hundreds more Klein cards for me to find but it is the companions for these two that I would like . . . . . .
I must share with you her alphabet cards at some point but there is so much about Catharina Klein and her paintings that would be good to share . . . an amazing lady with an amazing talent. . . . .
Sorry to be so long in coming back with this post . . . . .a slight accident.. . . . . . . In my last snippet regarding Rebecca Foster I said I would share with you some images of the paintings I bought from an auction house in the West Country. You will see five of these below. They are watercolours. I will share the oils another time. Even though they are not roses I am very pleased to have found them.
The most exciting development, however, is that I suggested I would love to know who was selling the paintings. I know now as the seller, Rebecca’s grand daughter, contacted me and is providing me with some great detail for my research.
You may not have heard of Catharina Klein or her roses but once you are aware of their beauty and distinctive style it is likely you will want to know more. Catharina built a huge following during her lifetime. Even now, over one hundred years later, her paintings sit well with the vintage style liked by so many people thus her popularity continues. A signature on a Catharina Klein painting identifies a work as hers. If there is no signature it is likely to have been painted by one of her students or avid followers. An underlined signature usually indicates an earlier work.
An early Catharina Klein postcard/painting.
Although Catharina studied painting in Berlin with her work being bought by the German nobility she also painted for book illustrations, advertisements and the then new craze of postcards that became so popular at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century. At this time the commercial spread of her work saw no bounds. She had no problem selling her paintings to many publishers who then were able to use each one as they wished. They could adapt a painting to suit their needs or even sell it on to other publishers. This is how her paintings came to be printed in their thousands many with different formats or with differing backgrounds. Occasonally a piece was merged with another painters work, hence the need for her signature for identification of her true works.
Catharina often added baskets, vases etc to her work.
Catharina’s paintings, either in oil or gouache, were reproduced by chromolithography, a process allowing coloured printing rather than just the black and white processing of lithography. At the end of the 19th century this process had become widespread and enabled mass production of postcards, which were sent in their thousands. It enabled her paintings to become widespread with some of her best work appearing on the postcards of Meissner and Buch and Raphael Tuck and Sons. Roses were her most popular subject but she painted many flowers and later some fruits and birds.
A single woman who had to make a living, Catharina could see that the production of postcards was lucrative for her. She often painted from real life but would then use her creativity to fit the painting within the dimensions of a postcard. She is reputed to have painted 1000 illustrations for the publishers Meissner and Buch alone. As they used good card stock and expensive inks many of the cards are in excellent condition today and allow rose enthusiasts to build extensive collections of her paintings.
Catharina is thought to have painted over 2,000 works.
It is her painting for postcards that has allowed her work to be so well recognized today as many of her original paintings were destroyed during wartime bombings. It is not known where many originals survive. Painting largely for the commercial sale of postcards, however, detracted from her reputation as a serious artist and it seems she was never recorded as a painter of ‘fine’ art.
Two particular commercial enterprises added to Catharina’s popularity. Raphael Tuck and Sons published a postcard book for amateur watercolour artists. Each page had a chromolithographed Catharina Klein postcard together with a monochrome outline of the postcard for the owner to paint. Once completed both postcards could be detached and sent. Catharina herself developed an alphabet series for Meissner and Buch, each featuring a letter of the alphabet entwined with flowers. Several of these featured roses. It appears that this set was extremely popular when produced and even today avid collectors of her paintings will go to expensive lengths to complete the set.
One of her painting books.
Catharina, originally from the small town of Eylau (now Bagrationovsk) just North East of the Polish border trained in Berlin. She then ran a studio there training young women to paint. In 1911 she published two short books, one on how to paint fruit and the other how to paint flowers. A number of her paintings were included in the books of others especially books of stories and poetry. The “Yearbook of American Authors”, written and compiled by Ida Scott Taylor had illustrations by Catharina and “Rubies from Byron” was also illustrated by her.
This is the first postcard I ‘discovered’ painted by Catharina. I bought it because I have a painting very similar.
Although Catharina’s work was often regarded as too commercial for ‘official’ art notoriety she certainly had and still has her followers, perhaps more so than some of the artists who are recognised for their ‘fine’ art. She made a good living from her painting and helped others to paint as well. She still inspires many of us today who appreciate the relaxed and distinctive style of her paintings. We can only thank the postcard industry for keeping alive this talented painter’s work and allowing us to view so many of her roses.
(Since I wrote this article I have collected more information and many more images and artefacts relating to Catharina Klein. If you have further queries please ask.)
Continuing the R A Foster theme . . . .I have been looking for her paintings, either watercolours or oils, to buy for some long time now but have only found ones that have been sold in the past. To my amazement, last week nine came along at once in an auction house in Cornwall. I did the only decent thing possible but the problem was I was not the only buyer after them. Perhaps I should stick to buying her postcards.
I would love to find out who was selling them as they must be a collector and I would also love to know who the underbidder was as they also must be interested in her paintings.
I will share some photos when I receive the paintings but for now these are some of the paintings she had published as postcards.
For some time now I have been researching into the life and work of the flower artist Rebecca Ann Foster or R A Foster as she always signs her work. She first held my attention when I discovered her beautiful paintings of roses on postcards that were published at the beginning of the 20th century. She was, however, a fine artist who exhibited many paintings in various galleries. Together with information about her life I am endeavouring to compile a list of the works she produced and the postcards she had published.
To add complication to this I have, in the last week, discovered that there have been a number of prints published by one of the companies who published her postcards. When I feel I have finally achieved my task I will include the research in one of my stories.
This beautiful garden sadly exists no longer. It died in 2017 along with the Royal National Rose Society. Fortunately out of the ashes has arisen The Rose Society UK, which is going from strength to strength.
The very first dust-jackets, around 1850, were plain brown paper coverings purely to keep the books clean. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century they became more attractive but the rose book coverings had to wait until later in the century.
I first learned of Maud Messel when asked to do some research into her life and her rose gardens. I was captivated not only by the woman herself but the connections she had with some of my favourite people in recent rose history. I discovered she became a friend of Ellen Willmott, author of ‘Genus Rosa’ (1910-1914) who supplied her with roses for her garden at Nymans. She was also a great friend of Eleanour Sinclair Rohde who I admire so much for her academic research into roses and other horticultural subjects. Maud was also known by Graham Stuart-Thomas who visited her rose garden on more than one occasion and wrote about her love of roses.
The Messel family play a vital part in horticultural history. Maud will always be in the archives remembered for the beautiful rose garden she created at Nymans in the 1920s and loved and tended until her death in 1960. Although the garden has undergone changes throughout the years it still retains much of the integrity and dreams of this determined woman of vision.
The rose garden at Nymans during the early summer. (Photograph courtesy of The National Trust).
Maud Frances Sambourne was the daughter of Edward Linley Sambourne, the Punch cartoonist, and Marion Herapath. In 1898, in her early twenties, she married Leonard Charles Rudolph Messel after an indecisive courtship. She had resisted marriage for some time enjoying the luxury and freedom of dances and parties that were available to her class in Victorian London. She was a beautiful and sociable young woman who, like her father, was artistic and wished to pursue a career in this field.
Leonard, who was accepted finally, was the son of Ludwig Ernest Wilhelm Leonard Messel (1847-1915) and Annie Messel. The marriage of Leonard and Maud was a long and happy one. The couple had three children, Linley in 1899, Anne in 1902 and Oliver in 1904. Leonard’s father, Ludwig was from a German Jewish family, who settled in England and became successful as a stockbroker. In 1890 he was able to buy the Nymans Estate, a house with 600 acres on a sloping site overlooking the High Weald of Sussex. This estate features very prominently in the lives of Leonard and Maud Messel.
Maud with her two eldest children. (Photograph courtesy of The National Trust).
After their marriage Leonard and Maud bought 37 Gloucester Terrace in London and Balcombe House in the country not far from Nymans. When Gloucester Terrace became too small for their growing family they sold and bought 104 Lancaster Gate. Leonard and Maud led a busy social life while in London but escaped to Balcombe or holiday destinations for at least six months of the year.
At Balcombe Maud and Leonard made a beautiful garden. The flowers of the garden were very much the province of Maud who had always loved them both in the garden and as cut blooms in the house. In particular the soft petalled, highly scented old roses suited her romantic style and at Balcombe she cherished them even though they were regarded as going out of fashion at this time. Maud found a friend in Ellen Willmott, the well-known rosarian of Warley Place in Essex. Without this friendship and the devotion of a small group of enthusiasts, many of the old roses which are valued today would have been lost.
In 1915 Leonard, now Colonel Leonard Messel, succeeded to the Nymans estate, the gardens of which had been a passion of his father and his gardener, James Comber, who had been inspired by the influential garden writer William Robinson. Maud and the children were not pleased at having to leave Balcombe for Nymans as they were very comfortable in the current house. Leonard compromised by promising to rebuild the house at Nymans in a style to suit Maud. A year or two after their move Leonard, together with ideas from Maud, had the nondescript Regency House replaced with a picturesque stone manor designed by Sir Walter Tapper and Norman Evill.
Leonard and Maud extended the property and during this time subscribed to seed collecting expeditions in the Himalayas and South America. These were possibly inspired by Harold, the son of James Comber the head gardener, who had become a globe-trotting plant collector bringing exotic plants back from the Himalayas and Tasmania. Leonard was a great collector of plants preferring to concentrate on the varieties of a few species. Nymans became famous for its Rhododendrons, Magnolias, Camelias and Hydrangeas with Leonard and James Comber working together to develop these. Leonard also began to collect horticultural books, especially herbals. In the new house a fine library was included to house these. By the end of the 1920s Nymans was known to have one of the best horticultural libraries in the world only surpassed by the English libraries of The British Museum and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
Part of Nymans as it is today. (Photograph courtesy of The National Trust).
It was during the 1920s that Maud, started to fulfil her dream of having a romantic garden of the older roses. A major plant collection began and the layout of the garden, designed by Maud was planned. Under her direction the old yard, with a well at its centre, was remodelled and planted with old-fashioned roses.
Maud could never be an active gardener because she suffered from an arthritic back but she was able to instigate a great collection of roses. There were many roses at Nymans already but the collection was greatly enhanced when her favourites were brought over from Balcombe. Maud, together with her husband, sought the now often rare roses from far and wide. Friends, nurseries and other rose enthusiasts contributed to their collection. Many were given to them by the rosarians Ellen Willmott and Edward Bunyard. Others Maud searched for in Europe especially France. Graham Stuart Thomas, who visited Nymans during the period before the war reports:
“The old varieties were especially treasured by Mrs Messel and hours were spent turning the pages of Redoutés great volumes trying to identify some of the roses that had reached the gardens from various sources”.
Graham Stuart Thomas also noted some of the roses in the garden at this time notably the ‘Blush Noisette’, He comments that although he had seen this rose here and there in old gardens through the south of England he had not met anyone before, or since, who had an inkling of its name and history. The gardener James Comber had recognised it from Plate 77 in vol. 2 of ‘Les Roses’ (1817-1821) by Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Other roses he noted in Maud’s rose garden were ‘Aimee Vibert’ (1828) and ‘Fellenberg’ (1857), both of which combined the vigour and small clustered flowers of the Musk Rose group with the perpetual flowering habit of the China Rose.
The gardens reached a peak in the 1930s and were regularly opened to the public. Leonard became well known in RHS circles both exhibiting and judging. However, the Second World War had a disastrous effect on both the family and the estate. Three of Leonard and Maud’s nephews were killed in action and the garden suffered from a lack of attention due to a severe reduction of staff.
In 1947 a disastrous fire destroyed the house. All of Leonard and Maud’s treasured possessions were lost, including the contents of the famous library. It is difficult to contemplate the effect that this had on the aging couple, but they were fortunate to be able to buy Holmsted Manor only a few miles from Nymans. They retained some of their enthusiasm for collecting beautiful things and soon their new house reflected their impeccable taste.
In due course, Nymans was partly rebuilt and later became one of the homes of Leonard and Maud’s daughter, Anne and her second husband the 6th Earl of Rosse. The plant collection was added to in 1949 and 1950 by Maud with the help of James Comber. Further developments were made by Lady Rosse in the 1960s, after the death of her mother, with the help of Graham Stuart Thomas. Lady Rosse took a particular interest in the rose garden adding many more old varieties. Nymans had been included in the gardens of The National Trust in 1953 in order to preserve the unique creation of the Messel family. This is the culmination of a long story, but it was the wishes of Leonard and Maud that this should happen.
Sadly Leonard died at Holmsted Manor on the 4th February 1953, a few days before his eighty-first birthday. Maud died, aged eighty-four, on the 8th March 1960, two months before one of her grandsons, Anthony Armstrong Jones, married Princess Margaret. The deaths of both Maud and Leonard left huge voids within a close family and also within the horticultural world. The obituary which appeared in The Times the day after Maud’s death included the following lines:
“In her later years Mrs Messel was more than the legendary great lady of an archaic past. Certainly her exquisite manner and presence belonged to a different age from ours. Her iridiscent, almost gossamer-like beauty was that of the tenderly nurtured exotic than of the wild hedgerow flower. Her sad and gentle voice, however, spoke from the depths of unfeigned compassion and understanding. And beneath her apparent fragility lay a strength of character, an invincibility of courage, and an insatiable fund of interest in all around her.”
She was much loved by her friends and family, especially her children and grandchildren and like her husband who died before her was sadly missed by many.
Michael Gibson in his book ‘The Rose Garden’s of England’ (1988) recalls many of the roses he found at Nymans including a rambler at the entrance to the rose garden ‘Princess Marie’, a possible sempervirens hybrid raised in France by Jacques in 1829, ‘Pauls Himalayan Musk’, a vast tree in a dell beyond the front of the house cascading down from about 12 metres, Kiftsgate, R polyantha Grandiflora together with Gallicas, Damasks, Centifolias and Albas as you would expect to find in a Victorian Rose Garden. He listed a number of roses of special interest because they were rare and hardly ever seen: the American Van Fleet climber ‘Breeze Hill’, ‘Lady Curzon’, ‘Sissinghurst Castle’, ‘Rene Andre’, a Wichuarana Rambler, ‘Cerise Bouquet’, ‘Honorine de Brabant’, ‘R rugose Rubra’, ‘The Chestnut Rose’, ‘The White Rose of York’ and ‘Maidens Blush’ both Albas.
In the 1990s the rose garden was again redesigned and when complete was officially opened by Lady Frances Armstrong Jones, Maud’s great granddaughter. Although Maud’s plan to restrict her garden to the roses of old has not been strictly followed I am sure she would like to know that it still thrives and that there are over 600 bushes of 115 varieties. In June, the fragrance of the roses can be smelled before they are seen.
(Since writing this story I have acquired ‘A Garden Flora’ by Leonard and Muriel Messel which lists the roses collected by Maud Messel and which were in the garden at the time. I also have found an article, written by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde in a Royal Horticultural Society Journal which lists many of the books that were in the famous horticultural library of Leonard Messel).
About a year ago, before our lives changed so suddenly and drastically, I was about to have printed a book of rose stories ‘The Soul of the Rose’. It was to include 30 stories and many images, also quotations and verse. Now that plan has changed. I am not only showcasing the museum on line but also the stories that were to be in the book. They include some amazing people . . . . . .
