Alexander Marshal

This recently rediscovered still-life is an extremely rare survival from the corpus of Alexander Marshall, one of the earliest and most gifted botanical draughtsmen working in Britain in the middle of 17^th century.

By profession Marshall was a merchant. A gentleman of ‘independent fortune’ he is recorded as living at a number of different addresses. In 1650, after spending time in France, he was in the village of Ham, while the following year he was in London and by 1654 he was in Islington. The last years of his life were spent at Fulham Palace, where he was a guest of the then Bishop of London, the keen horticulturalist, Henry Compton (1632-1713).¹

Marshall’s interests in botany and his talents as an artist were well known to his contemporaries. Samuel Hartlib (1600-1662) described him as ‘one of the great Florists and dealers for all manner of Roots Plants and seeds from the Indies and elsewhere,’ whereas - in 1658 - Sir William Sanderson went as far as to call him one of ‘our Modern Masters comparable with any now beyond the seas'.²

Of his botanical and naturalistic subjects, there are three important surviving groups in public collections, namely: the so-called Florilegium Alexandri Marshal, a collection of over six hundred watercolors painted on paper depicting different plants, birds, animals and insects (Royal Library, Windsor Castle); a group of thirty-three still-life watercolors on vellum (British Museum, London) and a folio of sixty-three insect studies (Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia).

As well as creating exquisitely detailed paintings from nature, Marshall carried out experiments on the making of color pigments from plants. So impressive were the results that he was often questioned about his methods. In 1667, for example, he was approached by the Royal Society who were interested to know his recipes. Although he gave them one or two, he declined to reveal all, insisting that 'the truth is, they [the recipes] are pretty secrets, but known, they are nothing. Several have been at me to know, how; as if they were but trifles, and not worth secrecy. To part with them as yet I desire to be excused'.³

The 17^th century was rich with flower painters from France, Germany and the Netherlands, but Alexander Marshall is the only notable Englishman working in this field. Very few of his works are held in private hands and so the sale of the present sheet presents collectors with a rare opportunity indeed.  

1. K. Sloan, A Noble Art. Amateur Artists and Drawing Masters c. 1600-1800, London 2000, p. 71

2. P. Leith-Ross, with contribution by H. McBurney, The Florilegium of Alexander Marshall at Windsor Castle, 2000, p. 7 & D. Attenborough, et. al, Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery, 2009, p. 118

3. P. Leith-Ross, lit.op.cit., 2000, p. 12-13