MARGARET MEE (BRITISH, 1909-1988) Guzmania monostachia (Tufted Airplant)

MARGARET MEE (BRITISH, 1909-1988)
Guzmania monostachia
Signed ‘Margaret Mee’ and inscribed with title, [circa 1968]
Gouache over pencil on paper
Watermarked ‘Raffaello Fabriano’
Image size: 8 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. Frame size: 19 x 23 in.
Provenance: Margaret Mee

A fine, finished painting by Mee of Guzmania monostachia (commonly known as the ‘West Indian Tufted Airplant’), which is an epiphytic bromeliad found in Brazil, the West Indies, and Florida (where it is threatened with extinction and considered endangered), and elsewhere. This gouache was included in one of the hundred signed and specifically bound copies of Mee’s first book, Flowers of the Brazilian Forest (London: 1968; cf. item 1) as the frontispiece, and was then removed from the volume to be exhibited separately.