MARGARET MEE (BRITISH, 1909-1988) Heterostemon mimoscoades

MARGARET MEE (BRITISH, 1909-1988)
Heterostemon mimoscoades
Gouache over pencil on paper removed from sketchbook, with small pencil sketch verso
Inscribed with location “Rio Araca, Amazonas -- Caatinga” and date “Oct[ober]. 1970”
Image size: 8 x 11 1/2 in. Frame size: 19 x 23 in.
Provenance: Margaret Mee
$5,800.
A field sketch of a Heterostemon mimosoides from the caatinga (ie forest growing on light, sandy soil). In her diary of her sixth expedition, Mee recorded, “we reached Sumauma [...] there I found Heterostemon mimosoides, a small tree growing in the igapo [ie forest permanently flooded by black water rivers], with large purple flowers resembling Bauhinia in form. I tried to paint the delicate blooms which began to wilt as soon as they were gathered but [...] this was impossible [...] My next encounter with this beautiful tree, with its amethyst flowers and deep green leaves that resemble those of Mimosa, was on the Rio Cuieiras, a tributary of the great Rio Negro. There, seated in my boat, I was successful in capturing the colour and form before the fragile flowers drooped and faded [...] Adolpho Ducke, the great Brazilian botanist, described [the Heterostemon mimosoides] as ‘Probably the most beautiful of all
Braziliam leguminosae” (M. Mee Flores do Amazonas. Flowers of the Amazon (Sao Cristovao, Rio de Janeiro: 1980), no. 2).