Camellia Triptych (Poster)

by Clara Maria Pope

Samuel Curtis's A Monograph on the Genus Camellia (London: J. & A. Arch, 1819) is generally recognized as the greatest of the English illustrated camellia books. The work is now treasured by collectors chiefly for its stunning illustrations by Clara Maria Pope. Born Clara Maria Leigh, she was the daughter of an amateur artist and was first married to Francis Wheatley, a portrait, landscape, and genre painter. She first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1796, beginning with miniatures and renderings of nursery-tale characters. Some years later, after the death of her first husband, she married actor and artist Alexander Pope. In her later career, she was primarily known for her flower images, shown at the Academy regularly from 1816 until her death in 1838. These posters of Pope's camellia illustrations are produced in partnership with the Irvin Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, University of South Carolina Libraries, where a rare copy of Curtis's A Monograph on the Genus Camellia is archived in the collection.

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