ABSTRACT
Marianne North was an English naturalist and botanical artist who specialised in flower painting. She was the elder daughter of Liberal MP Frederick North and his wife Janet, and widow of Robert Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire. Marianne had an older brother, Charles, and a younger sister, Janet Catherine, who married John Addington Symonds. She was brought up in Hastings, Sussex, and at school in Norwich, but her formal education was limited and unsatisfactory. Her broader cultural education came from the family's extensive travels and their artistic connections, which gave her an unusually privileged upbringing. Soon after that Lucie was engaged to be married to Sir Alexander Duff Gordon, a very handsome man, who used to come down for weeks at a time, and draw wonderful devils in our scrap-books, and walk about with Lucie wound up in one plaid, both smoking cigarettes.
