Join 2022 Lloyd Fellow, Lindsay Wells as she discusses her research at the Lloyd Library. From orchids and azaleas to palm trees and passionflowers, thousands of new plants entered British gardens from abroad during the nineteenth century, often traveling through imperial networks of travel, trade, and cultural exchange. This lecture will explore the history of British plant hunting alongside the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood—a group of Victorian artists who filled their pictures with elaborate horticultural imagery and botanical motifs.
Lindsay Wells is a specialist in nineteenth-century British art and the visual culture of plants and gardens. As a GRI-NEH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Getty Research Institute, she is currently writing a book on Pre-Raphaelite painting, the British Aesthetic Movement, and imperial plant hunting. Lindsay earned her PhD in art history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has held fellowships at UCLA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation.