Arcadópolis
White Water Lily
Louisa Anne Meredith, 1836
What you see
A fully open white water lily rests on a huge green leaf floating on the water. To the right, a bud still closed peeks out between green sepals, and farther off on the left, small pads float with two tiny buds. The water fills the lower band, and the eye goes straight to the golden heart of the flower.
Grey and greenish shading gives the white petals volume. At the center, the yellow is crowded with dark stamens. The water is not a wash of colour but many fine horizontal lines, grey and bluish, which form the flower’s reflection beneath it. Notice the raised rim of the large leaf on the right and the shadow the flower casts across it.
About Louisa Anne Meredith
Louisa Anne Meredith was born in Birmingham and, before she married, had already published in England, under her maiden name, Twamley, books of poems and flowers illustrated by herself. In 1839 she married and emigrated to Australia, and from 1840 she lived in Tasmania. A writer, naturalist and illustrator, she painted the flowers, birds and insects of the Tasmanian bush in great detail, and published her plates in books such as “Some of My Bush Friends in Tasmania”. She was also a member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
More by Louisa Anne Meredith
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