# Golden Star (Chrysogonum virginianum)

**Mary Vaux Walcott** (born Philadelphia, PA 1860-died St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada 1940)  
1922  
watercolor on paper  
sheet: 10 x 7 in. (25.5 x 17.9 cm)

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1970.355.483. [The museum's record](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=26045).

## 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._

Mary Vaux Walcott painted this in 1922, aged 62. It is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

### 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](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/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._

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- The artist was 62
- Real size: about 10 × 7 in (26 × 18 cm). The 8 × 10 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 20th century
- Subjects: Chrysogonum virginianum, Botanical study, Goldenstar
- Colour: white
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1942.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1942/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/golden-star-chrysogonum-virginianum-si-saam-1970-355-483).