School of Art

Contact Details

School of Art
Aberystwyth University
Buarth Mawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 1NG

Tel: +44 (0)1970 622460

Fax: +44 (0)1970 622461

Email: artschool@aber.ac.uk

Display artist/maker:

Jemima Blackburn (nee Wedderburn)

Born: 1823, UK, Scotland, Edinburgh   Died: 1909, UK, Scotland, Roshven

Illustrator and painter. Daughter of Solicitor-General for Scotland, who died before she was born, and cousin of physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831-79). Studied under John Ruskin (1819-1900) and Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-73), both of whom praised her work highly, earning her a reputation as one of the best illustrators in Victorian Britain. After marrying Professor Hugh Blackburn, in 1854 she bought Roshven estate where she painted many watercolours of rural family life in Scotland and studies of birds, for which she is largely remembered today. Author Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) named her character Jemima Puddle-Duck after Blackburn. In 1857 she was asked to contribute to the first exhibition of British art in America and subsequently exhibited in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. She illustrated 27 books in her lifetime, most notably her Birds from Nature, published in 1868. She also had an interest in depicting fantasy scenes from children’s fables

Objects in the collections associated with this artist/maker

St. Columbia PL199 Prints1860s

Work PL200 Prints1860s



 
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