A Curious Artist in Chelsea

23 Feb

One of the earliest artists to make the small fishing village of Chelsea her home, was the entrepreneurial Elizabeth Blackwell.

Elizabeth was born in a wealthy Scottish family, but due to her husband's unwise business sense they were facing poverty, whilst he was held in the debtors prison. In an effort to rescue her family's prospects, Elizabeth got herself involved with the Chelsea Physics Garden next door (she lived on Swan Walk), which was keen on cataloguing their collection of medicinal plants and newly discovered New Worlds species, such as the tomato seen in the above picture.

This photograph, marked as plate 133, shows the plant with all its components, the stem, the seed, the fruit in its open and closed state, its flower, all clearly labelled in a simple legend in the lower section. The tomato, first imported from Central America, was known in Europe as Love Apple, a translation of the French nickname, Pomi D’amour. In Italian they are still called Pomodori.

Elizabeth produced from 1736 to 39', 500 illustrations, which she sketched, engraved using copper plates and hand colouring each plate. This collection was known as A Curious Herbal and was released in 125 weekly instalments.

Her work was highly praised for its artistic value and by botanists for its accuracy. and scientific merits. The great Carl Linnaeus, who gave us the modern classification system of plant species, praised her work and gave her the title of 'Botanica Blackwellia'. There’s also a genus of plants named after her, Blackwellia of the class Dodecandria Pentagynia with 6 sub species.

Let’s not forget the Physics Garden, was founded for the research of medicinal plants, and all the specimen in the Curious Herbal were all used in medicine. We know lemons are a source of vitamin C, but folk remedies were still widely accepted in the period, like the use of cucumber seeds to treat kidney stones and urinary tract infections or tinging nettles to stop internal bleeding and counter coughs. Don’t try this at home.

Elizabeth’s effort went to great lengths, in improving her family’s predicament, but tragedy was to follow. Her husband Alexander Blackwell (they were cousins), was a physician turned printer, who ran into financial difficulties with his second business. He helped Elizabeth with the creation of her illustrations, at times from his prison cell. Once released, following their child’s death, Alexander found a job as physician in the Swedish court. He soon was linked to a diplomatic spat, and accused of high treason by the Prince of Sweden. He was executed.

Elizabeth died in Chelsea in 1758 and was buried in the churchyard of the Old Chelsea Church.

To hear more about curious and interesting characters in Chelsea, join me on my Walking Cheyne Walk: A Heritage Walk. Check calendar for dates.