Lilian Snelling

Lilian Snelling
Rhododendron dauricum var. sempervirens (Accepted name: Rhododendron ledebourii) Illustration by Lilian Snelling 1918.
Born	8 June 1879 St Mary Cray, Kent
Died	12 October 1972
Occupation	Botanical artist

Lilian Snelling (1879–1972) was "probably the most important British botanical artist of the first half of the 20th century". She was the principal artist and lithographer to Curtis's Botanical Magazine between 1921 and 1952 and "was considered one of the greatest botanical artists of her time" – "her paintings were both detailed and accurate and immensely beautiful". She was appointed MBE in 1954 and was awarded the Victoria Medal in 1955.

Lilian Snelling was born on 8 June 1879 at Spring Hall, St Mary Cray, Kent into the large family of John Carnell Snelling (1841–1902), brewer, and his wife, Margaret Elizabeth, née Colgalt. She and her sisters were boarders at a school in Tunbridge Wells. In 1915–16 Henry John Elwes commissioned her to paint flowers (which he had gathered on his travels), at his home Colesbourne Park in Gloucestershire.

Snelling worked at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from 1916-1921 painting plant portraits for Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour, Keeper of the Botanic Garden and Professor of Botany at the University of Edinburgh. She studied lithography under Frank Morley Fletcher.

She left in 1921 to work at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew as principal artist and lithographer to Curtis's Botanical Magazine which had recently been bought by the RHS where from 1929 she was assisted by Stella Ross-Craig. After 30 years she retired in 1952 having produced over 830 paintings and plates. Volume 169 of Curtis's was dedicated to her: "artist, lithographer and botanical illustrator who with remarkable delicacy of accurate outlines, brilliancy of colour and intricate gradation of tone, has faithfully portrayed most of the plants figured in this magazine from 1922 to 1952."