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Lady Edith Blake (1845-1928) Edith Osborne was born at Newtown, Anner, Ireland in 1845, into a family of moderately wealthy land owners. She developed an interest in painting at an early age and was much encouraged by her family and also by artists such as the Swiss landscape artist Alexandre Calame and the Thomas Shotter Boys who visited the family home. Although Edith's parents had been negotiating an arranged marriage for her, in 1874 she eloped with Captain Henry Blake of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Appalled at Blake's lower social status the family immediately disinherited Edith from a considerable fortune. At first the newly married couple had a difficult life, having to use Blake's low income to also support his widowed mother and 12 brothers and sisters. During the 1870s Ireland was in political turmoil and unrest was widespread. As part of an attempt to restore law and order, Henry Blake was appointed as a Special Magistrate. Although this post was to place him under the threat of assassination from extremists, Edith's response was characteristically brave, as she would accompany her husband on his duties many a time with a concealed revolver. A few years later, Blake entered the Colonial Service of the British Empire, and was promoted to the post of Governor of the Bahamas in 1884. It proved to be the beginning of a spectacular career that would take the couple to many exciting parts of the British Empire including Jamaica, where Blake served as Governor between 1889-1897. Throughout their travels Edith Blake took an avid interest in the fauna and flora. It was during her time in Jamaica that she was able to combine her artistic abilities and her interest in butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) to produce a collection of nearly 200 watercolours. In retirement the Blakes returned to their native Ireland to a much-loved house in Youghal, County Cork. Following Henry's death in 1918, Edith became a sad recluse wearing only mourning black for the rest of her life. She died at home in 1926.
This drawing of a female Giant Sphinx moth, (Cocytius antaeus antaeus Drury) is typical of Blake's work. The moth is shown in three stages of its life cycle; a caterpillar feeding on the leaves of the plant family Annonaceae, as a pupa or chrysalis and then in its final stage as an adult. It is also interesting to note that Blake has accurately recorded the feeding damage to the leaves caused by this moth. The annotations that accompany the drawing are a record of her observations from rearing this moth in 1892.
Hawkmoths are large and spectacular moths with equally impressive caterpillars. One of the largest is the Giant Sphinx (Cocytius antaeus), which occurs throughout tropical and subtropical Central and South America. Powerful fliers, their slender wings have subtle and intricate patterns. The moth also has a very long proboscis (up to 160mm), which it uses to drink nectar from orchids and other tropical flowers while hovering in front of them. In the pupal stage, this long tongue is housed in a special looped appendage. The caterpillar, which can grow to over 15cm in length, eat the leaves of custard apple trees (Annona species), rapidly reducing the large leaves to little more than short stems.
The Edith Blake Drawings Collection The Edith Blake Collection consists of 196 watercolours of Jamaican butterflies and moths and their food-plants, drawn between 1889-1898. The collection was presented to the Natural History Museum in 1926. It was not until 1984 however, when the drawings were conserved, that their true scientific value was realised. Although Edith had intended for her drawings to be a personal record of the many moths and butterflies she had reared in captivity, the drawings were to provide modern day entomologists with unique scientific information about the biology of many Jamaican Lepidoptera. A complete scientific survey of this collection has since
been carried out by Museum scientists and the scientific data
about the food-plants eaten by these insects is included on
the Natural History Museum HOSTS
- a database of the hostplants of the world's lepidoptera.
Exhibition and publication details In 1987, drawings nos. 13 and 17 from the collection were exhibited in the National Gallery of Ireland in an exhibition titled 'Irish Women Artists from the eighteenth century to the present day'. A publication was also produced to accompany the exhibition that was held July-August, 1987. (1987). Irish women artists: from the eighteenth century to the present day. National Gallery of Ireland & Douglas Hyde Gallery; Dublin. 208pp.
References and further reading Ellwood, C. V. & Harvey, J. M. V. (1990) The Lady Blake Collection: Catalogue of Lady Edith Blake's collection of drawings of Jamaican Lepidoptera and plants. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Historical series), vol. 18, pp.145-202. Shearer, B. F. and Shearer B. S. (eds.) (1996) Notable
women in the life sciences: a biographical dictionary.
Greenwood Press: Westport, Conn. 440pp. |
