Kirstenbosch, Cape Town: South Africa welcomes the return of
exquisite watercolour paintings to where they were created, another first for
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden at the foot of the majestic Table
Mountain. Lady Cynthia Tait (1894-1962), a proficient botanical illustrator
with a passion for South African flowers, is being celebrated at a special
exhibition in the Richard Crowie Hall in Kirstenbosch from 16 January to 15
March 2020.
Lady Tait’s love of South African flowers can
be attributed to accompanying her husband from Guernsey, where she stayed from
time to time when he was posted to the Far East, to Africa. Her husband,
Admiral Sir William Eric Campbell Tait (1886–1946), was a senior British naval
officer, courtier, Commander-in-Chief of the South Atlantic Station from 1942,
where he led the Royal Navy, South African Army and South African Air Force,
and fifth Governor of Southern Rhodesia.
After the death of Admiral Tait, she married Lancelot Ussher of Luncarty,
Claremont, Cape Town, where her love for South African flowers continued to
blossom.
Lady Tait’s paintings were inherited by granddaughter, Cynthia
Cormack, who granted permission for them to be exhibited at one of her
grandmother’s favourite spots, Kirstenbosch.
The paintings were almost forgotten until recently, when Cormack
was chatting to eminent Guernsey horticulturist and clematis grower, Raymond
Evison, about her grandmother’s works, a number of which were stored at her
home in Guernsey. Evison, impressed, contacted the Guernsey Arts Commission and
Gateway Publishing, which led to an exhibition in Guernsey in June and July
2018 of some 60 paintings, inherited by Cormack and Lady Tait’s grandson,
William Astley-Jones, and the publication of a selection of these paintings in a
book titled Tait Florilegium.
Kirstenbosch Botanical Society Chairman, Keith Kirsten, attended
the opening of the Guernsey exhibition and, enchanted by the paintings, was
immediately determined to bring the exhibition to Kirstenbosch where many of
these delightful paintings found their inspiration and, indeed, were actually
illustrated on Lady Tait’s frequent visits to Kirstenbosch and during her time
at Luncarty.
The Kirstenbosch Branch of the Botanical Society is delighted to
showcase 66 of Lady Tait’s paintings returning to South Africa on loan for the
exhibition, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Duncan Spence of Gateway
Publishing and Rickety Bridge Winery in Franschhoek, Western Cape.
Curated by Mary van Blommestein of the University of Cape Town (UCT)
Irma Stern Museum, the exhibition will also include botanical art by the
Western Cape branch of the Botanical Artists Association of Southern Africa
(BAASA), a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting public awareness of
botanical art in Southern Africa. The Lady Tait collection endorses South
African-inspired art pieces as pioneers in international botanical art.
Copies of Tait Florilegium, which contains full sized
reproductions of the glorious watercolours of selected South Africa wild
flowers by Lady Tait, will be on sale at the exhibition, along with beautiful
notecards.
The exhibition pays homage to an illustrator, almost lost to the
South African art world, and serves as a revival of these exquisite pieces that
embrace our natural heritage. It is fitting that the paintings are displayed at
the source of their inspiration; in the heart of South Africa’s famous floral
kingdom.
The exhibition promises to be one of the art industry’s top
events in 2020 and confirms South African National Biodiversity Institute
(SANBI), Kirstenbosch Branch of the Botanical Society and the Kirstenbosch
National Botanical Garden’s unique offering to the planet’s floral kingdom.
For information about the exhibition, contact Catherine Gribble
on 021 671 5468 or email catherine@botsoc-kirstenbosch.org.za.
