John Lindley

[Ipswich: George Ransome, 1850. Tinted lithograph in octagonal format, signature "John Lindley" as title, artist's printed signature in image l.r "T. H. Maguire 1849". Printed by M. & N. Hanhart. Fine portrait of the great English botanist.

John Lindley (1799-1865) was born in Norwich and attended Norwich School. His father was a gardener and could not afford to send Lindley to university. At sixteen therefore, Lindley became agent to Belgium for a seed merchant. This eventually led to his meeting W. J. Hooker. Hooker introduced him to Sir Joseph Banks, who gave him a job in his herbarium. When Banks died, Lindley went to work for another wealthy plant collector, William Cattley (after whom he named the orchid genus, Cattleyea. Thus, through personal connections, shared passion for botany and hard work, Lindley rose to a position of prominence in the world of science. He wrote many books, including an Encyclopedia of Plants, in collaboration with John Claudius Loudon, that described 15,000 flowering plants and ferns. He helped classify the many intriguing, newly discovered species of plants that arrived in England from far-off regions of the realm, particularly Australia. He became a Professor of Botany at London University, a Fellow of the Royal Society and received numerous other honors. Thomas Herbert Maguire (1821-1895) was a British artist, who studied lithography with Richard James Lane. He is best known for the portraits of scientists, primarily naturalists, for which he was commissioned by George Ransome, F. L. S. in connection with the founding of the Ipswich Museum. Ransome gave the portraits as gifts to subscribing members and gave the entire portfolio, which ultimately ran to 60 portraits, to especially important figures, most notably Prince Albert when he visited the museum in 1851. Maguire brought to portrait making an unusual capacity to capture a person's type and character. His portraits did not try glorify their subject but rather showed their individuality. The subject's renown depended on their accomplishments, which would have been well-known to the observers.