Catherine Teresa Cookson Explained

Catherine Teresa Cookson
Birth Name:Catherine Teresa Murray
Birth Place:County Wicklow, Ireland
Nationality:Irish
Known For:botanical painting
Notable Works:Flowers Drawn and Painted in India, (c. 1834–35)

Catherine Teresa Cookson or Mrs James Cookson (née Murray) (fl. 1830s) was an Irish botanical artist, who documented some of the botany of India.[1] [2]

Life

Catherine Teresa Murray, appears to have been from County Wicklow, was the daughter of a P. Murray. Little is known of her life, but it has been assumed that she is the wife of George James Cookson (1805–1838), a member of the Bengal Artillery, whom she married on 8 June 1832.[3] [4] Her husband died of smallpox on 20 January 1838.[5]

Artistic work

The work that she is known for is Flowers Drawn and Painted in India, which was published around 1835. Cookson wrote and illustrated the volume, and it is her only known work. The volume contains 31 botanical drawings of indigenous Indian plants.[6] The plates are hand-coloured lithographs. The bound album was presented to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Library by Queen Elizabeth II on the opening of the new Herbarium and Library building in 1964.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Catherine Teresa Cookson. CLARA Database of Women Artists. National Museum of Women in the Arts. 12 July 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192501/http://clara.nmwa.org/index.php?g=entity_detail_print&entity_id=18195. 4 March 2016. dead.
  2. Web site: Catherine Teresa Cookson. Database of Scientific Illustrators 1450-1950. 12 July 2015.
  3. Book: Butler . Patricia . Irish Botanical Illustrators & Flower Painters . 2000 . Antique Collectors' Club . 978-1-85149-357-9 . Suffolk . 104.
  4. Book: Desmond . Ray . Dictionary Of British And Irish Botantists And Horticulturalists Including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers . 1994 . Taylor & Francis . 978-0-85066-843-8 . London . 166.
  5. Book: East India Company. The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, Volume 26. 1838. Wm. H. Allen & Company. 105.
  6. Hagglund. Betty. The Botanical Writings of Maria Graham. Journal of Literature and Science. 2011. 4. 1. 48. 10.12929/jls.04.1.04. free.