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Between the 1850s and 1890s, Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones filled his paintings with plants that attack, adorn and engulf human figures. During this period, Victorians also witnessed dramatic changes in how they cultivated and consumed plants in everyday life. Advances in glasshouse technology and the rise of houseplant horticulture allowed homeowners to encounter plants in strange new contexts, from giant conservatories to miniature terrariums.
Join Lindsay Wells to explore connections between these new methods of gardening and the dynamic botanical imagery of Burne-Jones.
Lindsay Wells is the 2018 recipient of the University of Delaware Library/Delaware Art Museum Amy P. Goldman Fellowship in Pre-Raphaelite Studies. Wells is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dissertation, "Plant-Based Art: Indoor Gardening and the British Aesthetic Movement," explores how the rise of the 19th-century houseplant industry influenced botanical motifs in Victorian painting.