Fitch is an interesting man in an interesting time. The world was bubbling over with botanical discoveries and the journals and publications to disseminate the knowledge, interest in the scientific community and the general public was high, and Fitch, the artist, seems to have caught the wave.
WALTER HOOD FITCH
THE death of Mr. W. H. Fitch, which was briefly mentioned in this Journal for January, has removed from among us one who, although not a botanist in the strict sense of the word, was so long and intimately associated with botanical literature that some record of his work may be expected in these pages.
Walter Hood Fitch was born in Glasgow on the 28th of February, 1817. The family not long after removed to Leeds, where his father became book-keeper to a large firm of flax merchants; but they returned to Glasgow when Walter was about eight years old. Somewhat later, his taste for drawing having developed, he was set to work at drawing patterns for calicoes, muslins, &c.
I've found a good obituary is a great help in researching a person...this one from The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign is exceptional. I have added links and illustrations to it as I followed this and that I was interested in.
THE death of Mr. W. H. Fitch, which was briefly mentioned in this Journal for January, has removed from among us one who, although not a botanist in the strict sense of the word, was so long and intimately associated with botanical literature that some record of his work may be expected in these pages.
Walter Hood Fitch was born in Glasgow on the 28th of February, 1817. The family not long after removed to Leeds, where his father became book-keeper to a large firm of flax merchants; but they returned to Glasgow when Walter was about eight years old. Somewhat later, his taste for drawing having developed, he was set to work at drawing patterns for calicoes, muslins, &c.
He employed his evening leisure in glueing down plants for Dr. (afterwards Sir William) Hooker, who lent him a book of outline plates, and was so pleased with his copies that he secured his services by paying back his apprentice-fee to the master of the print works where he was engaged. From this time the career of Fitch as a botanical artist may be said to date. (Talk about being the right person in the right place at the right time!!)
Under so competent an instructor, and in a position so suited to his tastes, young Fitch made rapid progress. His name first appears in the Botanical Magazine, in connection with which much of his best work was done, in October, 1834, on plate 3553 (Mimuius roseus). (The full-size image is worth looking at to assess his style.)
His most recent folio plates are those to Mr. Elwes's Monograph of Lilium. (1880), on the title-page of which Fitch’s name stands as illustrator.
The New Zealand, Antarctic, and Tasmanian Floras of Sir Joseph Hooker, the Transactions and Journal of the Linnean Society (the former including such important works as Welwitsch’s Sertum Angolense, the Botany of the Speke and Grant Expedition, Bentham’s monographs of Mimosa and Cassia, and Triana’s Mélastomacées—(the plates of which Fitch once told us had given him more trouble than anything he had ever undertaken), the Botany of the Biologia Centroll-Americana, the Botany of the ‘Herald,’ and Flora Vitiensis—these are only some of the more important of the works illustrated by Fitch.
Many gardening and horticultural journals were from time to time illustrated by Fitch, and examples of his work will be found in our own earlier volumes. He prepared the very charming figures for the illustrated edition of Bentham’s Handbook, and the Illustrations of the Natural Orders issued by the Science and Art Department in 1874.
From time to time he contributed large groups of roses, lilies, and the like to the Gardeners’ Chronicle, as well as woodcuts of British plants in their natural habitats—the least satisfactory examples of his work. In the Chronicle, too, he published in 1869 an admirable series of lessons on “Botanical Drawing”—so far as we know, his only contribution to literature. It has long been a matter of wonder to us that these lessons have never been reprinted, and we mention the fact in the hope that they may yet be brought out in an accessible form. (I plan to clean up the files and post them.)
The long connection of Fitch with two of the works already mentioned—the Botanical Magazine and the Icones Plantarum—came to an end in 1877. In 1869, Sir Joseph Hooker had dedicated a volume of the former to him, as “ the accomplished artist and lithographer of upwards of 2500 plates already published of the Botanical Magazine,” and it seemed likely that the number would be indefinitely augmented. But a regrettable difference arose between Fitch and his employers, which resulted in the withdrawal of the former from his connection with the Kew serials. Into the merits of the dispute we have neither wish nor occasion to enter; letters from Fitch now before us show that he considered himself seriously aggrieved, and with some appearance of reason; and the botanical and horticultural public were certainly losers by the event. (I haven't turned up any more information than this...)
From this time Fitch’s health began to fail, and although his work became less frequent, in 1880 a Government pension of £100 was awarded him. The remainder of his days were spent with his family at Kew, one of whom, Mr. F. W. Fitch, carries on his father's work as a lithographer, in which connection his nephew, Mr. J. N. Fitch, is also well known.
He died, after a long and trying illness, on Jan. 14th, and was buried at Kew. His name was commemorated in 1845 in Fitchia Hook. f., a handsome genus of Compositae. He became F.L.S. in 1857.
The value of Fitch’s work appears to us to consist in that skill in “seizing the natural characters of plants” to which Sir Joseph Hooker referred more than forty years ago. He had also a keen sense of form, and the arrangement of the leaves in most of his plates would be in itself a lesson to a young botanical artist: his colour appears to us less satisfactory. He himself thought that his gifts lay rather in the direction of landscape, in which few were found to agree with him; and to this, as well as to the production of coloured sketches of a mildly humorous kind, he devoted some time. The originals of the drawings of the Botanical Magazine are in the Kew Herbarium.
"He himself thought that his gifts lay rather in the direction of landscape, in which few were found to agree with him;..."
above article: 1892 - The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign ..., Volume 30
Under so competent an instructor, and in a position so suited to his tastes, young Fitch made rapid progress. His name first appears in the Botanical Magazine, in connection with which much of his best work was done, in October, 1834, on plate 3553 (Mimuius roseus). (The full-size image is worth looking at to assess his style.)
 |
| Fitch's illustration in Curtis's Botanical Magazine |
In 1836, Sir William Hooker began the Icones Plantarum, and, although Fitch’s name does not appear upon them, we believe that he was responsible for the plates. When Sir William went to Kew in 1841, Fitch went with him, and there spent the remainder of his life: the two were associated in many undertakings. The list of publications which Fitch illustrated during the succeeding forty years would be a long one—too long, indeed, for insertion here ; and it is only possible to glance at a few of them.
Fitch was a lithographer as well as an artist, and his published plates therefore have not, as is sometimes the case, failed to represent the meaning of the draughtsman. Among his earlier work may be named the plates of the Genera Filicum (1842) taken from Francis Bauer’s beautiful drawings; of these Sir William says in the preface:
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| Icones Plantarum |
Fitch was a lithographer as well as an artist, and his published plates therefore have not, as is sometimes the case, failed to represent the meaning of the draughtsman. Among his earlier work may be named the plates of the Genera Filicum (1842) taken from Francis Bauer’s beautiful drawings; of these Sir William says in the preface:
“ [they] have been all executed under my own eye, in zincography, by a young artist, Walter Fitch, with a delicacy and accuracy which I trust will not discredit the figures from which they were taken.”
Of his larger work, good examples may be found in Sir William Hooker’s Victoria regia (1851) and Dr. (now Sir) J. D. Hooker’s Illustrations of Himalayan Plants (1855) ; in the preface to the latter, Sir Joseph speaks of the “unrivalled skill in seizing the natural characters of plants” of this “incomparable botanical artist," thus showing the very high estimate which had been formed of Fitch's work.
His most recent folio plates are those to Mr. Elwes's Monograph of Lilium. (1880), on the title-page of which Fitch’s name stands as illustrator.
The New Zealand, Antarctic, and Tasmanian Floras of Sir Joseph Hooker, the Transactions and Journal of the Linnean Society (the former including such important works as Welwitsch’s Sertum Angolense, the Botany of the Speke and Grant Expedition, Bentham’s monographs of Mimosa and Cassia, and Triana’s Mélastomacées—(the plates of which Fitch once told us had given him more trouble than anything he had ever undertaken), the Botany of the Biologia Centroll-Americana, the Botany of the ‘Herald,’ and Flora Vitiensis—these are only some of the more important of the works illustrated by Fitch.
 |
| J. Triana’s Mélastomacées |
From time to time he contributed large groups of roses, lilies, and the like to the Gardeners’ Chronicle, as well as woodcuts of British plants in their natural habitats—the least satisfactory examples of his work. In the Chronicle, too, he published in 1869 an admirable series of lessons on “Botanical Drawing”—so far as we know, his only contribution to literature. It has long been a matter of wonder to us that these lessons have never been reprinted, and we mention the fact in the hope that they may yet be brought out in an accessible form. (I plan to clean up the files and post them.)
The long connection of Fitch with two of the works already mentioned—the Botanical Magazine and the Icones Plantarum—came to an end in 1877. In 1869, Sir Joseph Hooker had dedicated a volume of the former to him, as “ the accomplished artist and lithographer of upwards of 2500 plates already published of the Botanical Magazine,” and it seemed likely that the number would be indefinitely augmented. But a regrettable difference arose between Fitch and his employers, which resulted in the withdrawal of the former from his connection with the Kew serials. Into the merits of the dispute we have neither wish nor occasion to enter; letters from Fitch now before us show that he considered himself seriously aggrieved, and with some appearance of reason; and the botanical and horticultural public were certainly losers by the event. (I haven't turned up any more information than this...)
From this time Fitch’s health began to fail, and although his work became less frequent, in 1880 a Government pension of £100 was awarded him. The remainder of his days were spent with his family at Kew, one of whom, Mr. F. W. Fitch, carries on his father's work as a lithographer, in which connection his nephew, Mr. J. N. Fitch, is also well known.
He died, after a long and trying illness, on Jan. 14th, and was buried at Kew. His name was commemorated in 1845 in Fitchia Hook. f., a handsome genus of Compositae. He became F.L.S. in 1857.
The value of Fitch’s work appears to us to consist in that skill in “seizing the natural characters of plants” to which Sir Joseph Hooker referred more than forty years ago. He had also a keen sense of form, and the arrangement of the leaves in most of his plates would be in itself a lesson to a young botanical artist: his colour appears to us less satisfactory. He himself thought that his gifts lay rather in the direction of landscape, in which few were found to agree with him; and to this, as well as to the production of coloured sketches of a mildly humorous kind, he devoted some time. The originals of the drawings of the Botanical Magazine are in the Kew Herbarium.
"He himself thought that his gifts lay rather in the direction of landscape, in which few were found to agree with him;..."
above article: 1892 - The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign ..., Volume 30
I love oncidiums. I wonder what insect this looks like.
Above Oncidium from:
1869 - Refugium Botanicum: Or Figures and Descriptions from Living Specimens, of Little Known Or New Plants of Botanical Interest, Volume 1
1882 - Refugium botanicum; or, Figures and descriptions ... of little known or new plants, ed. by W.W. Saunders, the descriptions by H.G. Reichenbach, J.G. Baker and other botanists, the plates by W.H. Fitch, Volume 2
Above Oncidium from:
1869 - Refugium Botanicum: Or Figures and Descriptions from Living Specimens, of Little Known Or New Plants of Botanical Interest, Volume 1
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