Golden Star (Chrysogonum virginianum)1922
Golden star, a low woodland plant of the eastern United States with bright yellow, star-shaped flowers, is recorded here in watercolour by Mary Vaux Walcott. More about this work
About this work
Golden star, a low woodland plant of the eastern United States with bright yellow, star-shaped flowers, is recorded here in watercolour by Mary Vaux Walcott. Largely self-taught as an artist, she spent decades painting North American wildflowers from life, many of them on summer expeditions in the Canadian Rockies, and the Smithsonian Institution published some four hundred of her plates in North American Wild Flowers in the later 1920s. Her studies combine botanical accuracy with a fresh, delicate touch.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Watercolour
- Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.
Mary Vaux Walcott
born Philadelphia, PA 1860-died St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada 1940
Mary Vaux Walcott came from a Philadelphia Quaker family and spent summers in the Canadian Rockies, where she photographed glaciers and began painting wildflowers in watercolour. In 1914 she married Charles Doolittle Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, which published her five-volume North American Wild Flowers in 1925. Her careful, botanically accurate plates made the series a landmark of American flower illustration.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1970.355.483
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Graphic Arts
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
