Etching and drypoint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/katharine-cameron-852" aria-label="More by Katharine Cameron" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Katharine Cameron</a>
Mountain Fern
Presented by the artist 1960, accessioned 1987
clover
fern
flower
plants and flowers
root
paper print etching drypoint
The Mountain Fern
image: 429 × 191 mm
Presented by the artist 1960, accessioned 1987
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/cameron-the-mountain-fern-p02947" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P02947</span></a> <b>The Mountain Fern</b> <i>c</i>.1923
<br/>
<br/>Etching and drypoint 429 × 191 (17 × 7 1/2) on paper 551 × 399 (21 1/2 × 15 3/4); printer not known; not editioned
<br/>Presented by the artist 1960 and accessioned 1987
<br/>Inscribed ‘K. Cameron’ below image b.l. and ‘The Mountain Fern’ below image b.r.; printed inscription ‘K. Cameron’ twice b.l.
<br/><i>Prov:</i> The artist</p>
<p>The Scaley Male Fern, also called the Golden Scaled Male Fern, <i>Dryopteris affinis</i> (Lowe) Fraser-Jenkins, is common in West Scotland and Wales, particularly so in Argyll. Katherine Cameron made a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> of this specimen at Connel-Ferry in Argyll, beside Loch Etive about five miles south of Oban, in 1923 (as she says in her letter to the Tate Gallery of 8 Dec. 1959). The fern was painted in the spring, and it is likely that her <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> was made the same year.</p>
<p>The watercolour was given to the Gallery by her husband in 1930 after it had been shown in her exhibition that year at Walker's Galleries, <i>Flowers and Western Seas: Water-colours by Katherine Cameron, ARE, RSW</i> (N 04513, 508 × 286, 20 × 11 1/4). When much later the Gallery wrote to her, then aged eighty-five, for information about the watercolour for a forthcoming catalogue, she gave a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/proof" title="Glossary definition for 'Proof'"><span>proof</span></a> of her <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etching</span></a> of the subject, which was accepted ‘for the reference section’. It only came to light again when the catalogue entry on the watercolour was being revised, and is itself now catalogued for the first time.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>Tate Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i> <i>1986-88</i>, London 1996
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
clover fern flower plants and flowers root